Investing.com - After Wall Street closed on Friday at its highest level in two months thanks to a sharp rise in U.S. nonfarm payrolls in February, U.S. futures suggested a lower open as they followed the global stock trend on Monday.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 48 points, or 0.28%, by 11:57GMT, or 6:57AM ET, the S&P 500 futures fell 8 points, or 0.40%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 21 points, or 0.49%.
U.S. futures followed the broader global trend on Monday as European shares fell, following a mixed session in Asia, as investors digested the latest economic targets from China and focused on the European Central Bank's next meeting this week where most bets were placed on a cut to the euro zone deposit rate.
In this monetary policy context, the Federal Reserve was pushed to some extent to the back-burner as its own policy decision will not arrive until March 16.
Nevertheless, a National Association of Business Economics’ (NABE) survey revealed on Monday that expectations for a rate hike from the Fed had declined.
80% of the 252 economists surveyed did still expect at least one rate hike in 2016. Broken down, 39% said they expect the Fed to raise rates twice this year, 24% forecast just one increase and 17% were placing bets on at least three.
“A large and growing majority of business economists expects the Federal Open Market Committee to continue raising the near-term target for the federal funds rate throughout 2016,” NABE President Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly said.
“However, respondents on balance expect fewer increases in 2016 than they had predicted in the August 2015 survey,” she added.
In any case, and with very little U.S. data on the economic docket this week, market players will pay close attention to speeches from a pair Fed officials on Monday to attempt to judge the balance of opinion among policymakers on the prospect of further rate hikes.
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is due to deliver a speech titled "Economic Outlook, Liquidity and Resilience" at the Institute of International Bankers Annual Washington Conference, in Washington D.C. at 18:00GMT, or 1:00PM ET, Monday.
At the same time, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will deliver a speech titled "Reflections on Macroeconomics Then and Now" at the National Association for Business Economics policy conference, in Washington D.C.
Meanwhile, the dollar managed to hold onto strength against the other major currencies on Monday, despite the decrease in expectations for monetary policy tightening from the Fed. At 11:59GMT or 6:59AM ET, the U.S. Dollar Index, that gauges the greenback’s value against a basket of six other currencies, advanced 0.40% to 97.64. EUR/USD fell 0.50% to 1.0951, GBP/USD traded down 0.49% at 1.4157, but USD/JPY slipped 0.18% to 113.57.
Lastly, black gold continued to show strength, trading near 2-month highs amid bullish sentiment. Crude oil futures for April delivery gained 1.48% to $36.45 by 12:02GMT or 7:02AM ET, while Brent oil traded up 1.39% to $39.26.