Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a flat to higher open on Thursday as markets looked ahead to economic reports on the U.S. labor market and crude inventories later in the session.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 5 points, or 0.02%, at 7:02AM ET (11:02GMT), the S&P 500 futures advanced 3 points, or 0.10%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 11 points, or 0.19%.
Market players looked ahead Thursday to the publication of payroll processing firm ADP’s monthly report on U.S. nonfarm employment at 8:15AM ET (12:15GMT). Consensus is looking for the creation of an additional 185,000 jobs in May.
While not viewed as a reliable guide for the government jobs report due on Friday, June 2, it does give guidance on private-sector hiring.
In another measure of the American labor market, the U.S. Department of Labor will release weekly jobless claims at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) Thursday.
Before the release of the labor data, Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell was scheduled to chime in with his views on the economy, monetary policy and the balance sheet at the Economic Club of New York at 8:00AM ET (12:00GMT).
With the policy decision just two weeks away, markets continued to price in the odds of a rate hike at around 85%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Amid a slew of other similar reports worldwide, investors will also focus on ISM manufacturing PMI for May out at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).
Earlier in the day, concern over the health of China’s economy intensified as the Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which focuses more on small and mid-sized firms, fell to 49.6 in May, from 50.1 in April. That signals that activity contracted last month, for the first time in nearly a year, due to “muted” growth in new orders from domestic and overseas customers.
On the upside, Japan's manufacturing PMI rose to 53.1, beating an estimate of 52.0 that would have been steady with April.
The euro zone manufacturing PMI was confirmed at 57.0 for May, showing that the strong growth of production and new business supported survey-record job creation.
While in the U.K., the May manufacturing PMI fell slightly less than expected in a further sign of “marked growth”. Markit noted that output and new order growth remained solid, while the rate of job creation was at a 35-month high.
Meanwhile, oil gave up early gains in choppy trade on Thursdays.
Crude prices had risen more than 1% in Asian trade earlier after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported late Wednesday that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 8.670 million barrels at the end of last week, far more than the 2.517 million barrels expected.
However, buying sentiment appeared to fade ahead of the official data from the Energy Information Administration set to be released at 11:00AM ET (15:00GMT). The report is released one day later than usual due to the Memorial Day holiday.
Continuing to weigh on sentiment, market players still held doubts over whether the agreement between major oil producers to extend production cuts would balance out with increases in U.S. shale production and increases by OPEC members such as Nigeria and Libya who are exempt from the output reduction.
Adding to the mix were key evaluations of demand as the U.S. summer driving season begins.
U.S. crude oil futures rose 0.17% to $48.10 at 7:04AM ET (11:04GMT), while Brent oil gave up 0.12% to $50.70.