United States stock futures traded higher on Monday night (Tuesday AEDT) as investors positioned ahead of the release of November’s closely watched jobs report, which is expected to provide fresh insight into the strength of the U.S. labour market.
By around 11:15 am AEDT, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were up by 0.8% apiece.
The move followed a weaker session for U.S. equities, with all three major benchmarks closing lower on Monday as losses in key artificial intelligence stocks weighed on sentiment.
In regular trading, Broadcom shares fell 5.6%, while software group ServiceNow slid 11.5% and Oracle declined 2.7%.
Microsoft also ended the session lower, as investors continued to take profits from high-flying AI names and rotate into other areas of the market, including healthcare and utilities.
Despite the recent pullback in technology stocks, the U.S. sharemarket remains on track for a strong year, with gains recorded across all 11 sectors of the S&P 500.
Attention is now firmly on November’s nonfarm payrolls report, due for release on Tuesday morning.
Economists expect payrolls to have increased by 40,000 last month, a sharp slowdown from the 119,000 jobs added in September.
The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 4.4%.
In addition to the labour market data, investors will also assess October retail sales figures, which are scheduled for release alongside the payrolls report.
Later in the week, markets will turn to inflation data, with the November consumer price index due on Thursday (Friday AEDT), which could further influence expectations for U.S. interest rate policy.
