Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Thursday as investors looked ahead to weekly jobless claims and Twitter tumbled on reports that several bidders had decided not to bid for the social platform.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 28 points, or 0.16%, by 6:53AM ET (10:53GMT), the S&P 500 futures fell 4 points, or 0.19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 9 points, or 0.18%.
Ahead of Friday’s monthly employment data, markets will digest a report on initial jobless claims at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
This will be the last clue on the state of the U.S. labor market ahead of September nonfarm payrolls on Friday as market participants look to the data to weigh the likelihood of a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
The consensus forecast is that the data will show jobs growth of 175,000 in September, following an increase of 151,000 in August. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 4.9%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2% after gaining 0.1% a month earlier.
A strong nonfarm payrolls report would reinforce the view that a U.S. rate hike in December may be in the cards, after hawkish signals from senior Fed officials in recent weeks revived speculation of a rate hike before the end of the year.
Late Wednesday, Fed vice chair Stanley Fischer focused more on the low-interest rate environment that advanced economies were facing and did not comment on current monetary policy.
According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, investors are pricing in a 59.3% chance of a rate hike by December. November odds were at around 14.5%.
Growing expectations of a return to policy normalization stateside supported the dollar. The greenback edged higher to trade near a two-month peak against the other major currencies on Thursday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.23% at 96.35 at 6:57AM ET (10:57GMT), just below a two-month high of 96.38 touched earlier this week.
In company news, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) slumped nearly 15% in pre-market trade on Thursday on reports that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) would not move forward with a bid to acquire the social network.
To the contrary, Jd.Com Inc Adr (NASDAQ:JD) rose more than 3% on news that Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) had increased its stake in the online direct sales firm.
In a large move on earnings, Yum! Brands Inc (NYSE:YUM) could see movement on Thursday after poor sales in China caused revenue to decline 3.2% and come in below consensus. The company behind KFC, Taco Bell or Pizza Hut fell 2.2% in Wednesday’s after-hours market on the heels of its earnings report.
Meanwhile, oil prices were undergoing choppy trade near four-month highs reached in the prior session after a surprise draw in U.S. crude inventories.
Though oil had traded in the red throughout much of early European trading, black gold recovered after Algerian energy minister Nouredine Boutarfa said that OPEC could cut output beyond the amount considered at the end of September if it was needed.
U.S. crude futures still traded down 0.12% to $49.77 by 6:55AM ET (10:55GMT), while Brent oil edged forward 0.10% to $51.91.