Investing.com - U.S. stock markets pointed to a muted open on Wednesday morning, as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report, which could cement expectations for an interest rate hike next week.
Headlines from Washington will be in focus, as President Donald Trump plans to meet with a group of infrastructure business leaders at the White House for lunch.
The blue-chip Dow futures shed 13 points, or less than 0.1%, at 6:50AM ET (11:50GMT), the S&P 500 futures dipped 2 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures declined 3 points.
U.S. stocks posted their first back-to-back losses in more than a month on Tuesday, led by declines in drug and bank stocks.
Investors will be watching Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for February for indications that jobs and wage growth is on track.
Ahead of the government report, payroll processing firm ADP is set to release data on February private sector payrolls at 8:15AM ET (13:15GMT), with expectations for the creation of 190,000 jobs.
Also on the economic docket on Wednesday, revised productivity figures and unit labor costs for the fourth quarter are due at 8:30AM ET, followed by wholesale inventories at 10AM ET.
A rate increase at the Federal Reserve’s March 14-15 meeting is seen as a near certainty following recent hawkish comments by Fed policymakers, including Chair Janet Yellen.
Futures traders are pricing in around an 86% chance of a hike at next week’s meeting, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Meanwhile, the Energy Department is scheduled to release its official weekly oil supply report at 10:30AM ET (15:30GMT) Wednesday.
The American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories rose by a whopping 11.6 million barrels in the week ended March 3.
U.S. crude was down 53 cents, or 1%, to $52.61, while Brent slumped 52 cents to $55.40 a barrel.
Elsewhere, European stock markets were trading in choppy fashion during mid-morning trade, before the U.K. government unveils its spring budget Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier, in Asia, markets ended mostly lower, with the Shanghai Composite in China closing down around 0.1%, while Japan's Nikkei declined about 0.5%.
Data from China showed the country recorded a surprise trade deficit in February, its first since 2014, following a surge in imports after the Lunar New Year holiday and a drop in exports.