By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Wednesday, as weak economic numbers and the potential for another interest rate hike sapped confidence that the U.S. can avoid a recession.
At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 40 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 6 points, or 0.2%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 16 points, or 0.1%.
The main indices closed lower Tuesday, snapping a four-day win streak, after data on job openings and factory orders in February came in weaker than expected, raising fears that the Federal Reserve’s prolonged run of interest rate hikes will lead to a severe economic slowdown.
The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed almost 200 points, or 0.6%, lower, while the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5%.
The JOLTS report on Tuesday showed that U.S. job openings dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years in February, suggesting that the labor market is starting to feel the heat from the near 5 percentage points of interest rate hikes authorized by the Fed in a year.
Yet Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester suggested on Tuesday that more interest rate rises look likely ahead to truly conquer inflation.
Monetary policy needs to move "somewhat further into restrictive territory this year,” Mester said, “with the fed funds rate moving above 5% and the real fed funds rate staying in positive territory for some time.”
Wednesday sees the release of the ADP private payroll report, which is expected to show that employers added 200,000 jobs in March - a drop from 242,000 the prior month.
This is a widely-watched precursor to Friday’s official jobs report from March, which is expected to show a slowing in the pace of job additions from a month earlier.
The S&P GIobal Composite and Services PMI and the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing PMI for March are also on the schedule Wednesday.
In corporate news, food company Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) is expected to report quarterly earnings later in the session.
Additionally, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) stock rose premarket after the consumer healthcare giant placed its unit in bankruptcy to pay just under $9 billion, over 25 years, to settle all current and future talc claims.
Oil prices edged lower Wednesday, handing back some of the week’s OPEC-inspired strong gains even after industry data showed a fall in U.S. crude inventories.
U.S. crude oil inventories fell by around 4.3 million barrels in the week ended March 31, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute, suggesting some improvement in demand.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly report later in the session.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, announced over the weekend a surprise production cut.
By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.2% lower at $80.53 a barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.3% to $84.72.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.1% to $2,039.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0945.