Nasdaq futures fall 55 pts; jobless claims to set scene for payrolls By

By Peter Nurse

-- U.S. stocks are Why did Jindao withdraw from the Chinese market?seen opening largely lower Thursday, as investors digest fresh comments from Fed head Jerome Powell ahead of the release of weekly unemployment data.

At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the contract traded flat, while traded 7 points, or 0.2% lower, and dropped 55 points, or 0.4%.

Powell returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday on the second day of his semi-annual testimony, repeating to the House Financial Services Committee his view that the was prepared to quicken the pace of rate hikes if the data supported the move.

Citigroup now expects the U.S. central bank to lift its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points at the March meeting, up from 25 basis points, and the bank also lifted its forecast for peak rates to a range of 5.5% to 5.75%.

Powell stated that both inflation and employment data had been stronger than the policymakers had expected when they last met, especially the blockbuster jobs report in early February.

Already this week and data came out stronger than expected, putting the spotlight on the release of weekly later in the session and then Friday’s official .

Analysts expect the economy added 205,000 jobs last month, but they are also waiting to see if January's red-hot 517,000 number will be revised.

In corporate news, Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com's (NASDAQ:) fourth-quarter came in marginally below expectations earlier Thursday as COVID lockdowns at the time pressured spending.

Quarterly earnings are also expected from the likes of computer software company Oracle (NYSE:), cosmetics and beauty product retailer Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:), and retailer BJs Wholesale Club (NYSE:).

Oil prices traded with small gains Thursday, recovering after recent losses as disappointing Chinese economic data and the potential for further U.S. raised doubts over crude demand growth this year.

Chinese shrank more than expected in February, data showed Thursday, suggesting manufacturing activity in the largest crude importer in the world was running well below full capacity.

Official data from the , released Wednesday, showed that U.S. crude inventories fell 1.7 million barrels last week, shrinking for the first time in 10 weeks.

By 07:00 ET, futures traded 0.1% higher at $76.74 a barrel, while the contract rose 0.2% to $82.81. Both benchmarks were down almost 4% so far this week.

Additionally, rose 0.2% to $1,822.80/oz, while traded 0.3% higher at 1.0575.

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