Dow Futures Up 80 Pts; Jobs Openings, Manufacturing PMI Data in Focus By

© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse    

-- U.S. stocks are seen opening in a muted fashion Wednesday, with investors looking to the economic data dump later in the session for direction.

At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 80 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded largely flat while Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 20 points, or 0.2%.

The main indices on Wall Street closed lower Tuesday, unable to sustain last week's rally amid concerns over soaring inflation, not helped by the Eurozone reporting a record rise in CPI in May and oil prices climbing for the sixth straight month.

With the first-quarter earnings season largely complete and the Federal Reserve having strongly signaled its rate hike intentions for its next two meetings, stocks could struggle for direction over the summer.

Attention is likely to turn to the release of the April job openings, the JOLTS job report, ahead of Friday’s release of the widely watched monthly official employment report.

The jobs openings are expected to come in around 11.4 million, which would be down slightly from the 11.55 million reported for the prior month.

The May ISM manufacturing PMI index will also be studied carefully for the impact of inflation, particularly after manufacturing activity in Europe was at its slowest since early last year and German retail sales fell sharply. 

The Fed will also release its Beige Book as it starts to reduce its balance sheet, while New York Fed President John Williams and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard will also speak at separate events.

In the corporate sector, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) provided some positive news as the software giant raised its full-year adjusted profit forecast after posting strong first-quarter results after the bell Tuesday, helping its stock climb over 8% premarket.

On the flip side, Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA) stock is seen 5% lower premarket after the semiconductor company disappointed with its second-quarter guidance, citing difficulties with supplies from China given its COVID wave.  

Oil prices rose Wednesday, still supported by the decision of the European Union to substantially reduce oil imports from Russia as well as China ending its COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai.

This positive tone remains despite a WSJ report that some producers are thinking of suspending Russia’s participation in the output deal agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies.

Exempting Russia could pave the way for other OPEC members, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to produce more, potentially bringing down prices.

The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to reveal its weekly estimate of U.S. crude oil supply later in the session.

By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% higher at $116.06 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.3% to $117.12.

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.8% to $1,834.45/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% lower at 1.0716.

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