Futures slip on rate

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on Gold foreign exchange trend latest newsThursday as labor market strength and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's remarks keep investors worried about rate hikes as they await a key jobs report that could determine the Fed's policy path.

With economic data so far suggesting the labor market remains hot despite the Fed's aggressive monetary tightening over the past year, investors are now focused on the February non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

The reading is expected to show payrolls increased by 205,000 last month, according to economists polled by Reuters, after January's blowout 517,000 figure, which had first led markets to reprice their expectations for U.S. interest rates.

"Our US economists expect a positive surprise to payrolls on Friday," said Citi strategists in a note published late on Wednesday.

"Given that good news is bad news for markets, we think this would likely cause equities to sell-off further and support the case for an outsize Fed hike."

Before the payrolls data, a separate report from the Labor Department due at 8:30 am ET on Thursday is expected to show an uptick in initial claims for state unemployment benefits for the week ended March 4.

Wall Street's main indexes ended mixed on Wednesday, with the benchmark eking out marginal gains after Powell reaffirmed his message of likely sharper interest rate hikes, but emphasized that the decision hinged on economic data before the central bank's March meeting.

Powell's two-day testimony has led markets, which until recently had been expecting a 25-basis-point rate hike, to dramatically increase their bets for a larger 50 bps increase by the Fed in March, with rates now seen peaking at 5.65% by September.

Nasdaq futures led declines on Thursday, with shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc down 3.1% in premarket trade and set to extend its losses from the previous session on news of a probe by the U.S. auto safety regulator.

Other Big Tech and growth stocks such as (NASDAQ:), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) fell between 0.7% and 0.8%.

At 5:22 a.m. ET, were down 62 points, or 0.19%, were down 14.75 points, or 0.37%, and were down 83.75 points, or 0.68%.

Statement: The content of this article does not represent the views of FTI website. The content is for reference only and does not constitute investment suggestions. Investment is risky, so you should be careful in your choice! If it involves content, copyright and other issues, please contact us and we will make adjustments at the first time!