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Stock futures were largely flat Wednesday evening as Wall Street looks to regain momentum after a rocky start to September. Key labor market data is also on deck this week.
Futures for the S&P 500 were up less than 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched up about 0.1%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked higher by 17 points, or less than 0.1%.
The moves come after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each closed lower for the second straight session, dipping 0.16% and 0.30%, respectively. The Dow squeezed out a gain of 38 points, or 0.09%, on Wednesday.
All three averages are down for the week, with key employment reports looming. On Thursday morning, investors will get to sift through weekly jobless claims data, while the August nonfarm payrolls report is due out Friday.
The market has appeared to be sensitive to potential growth scares in recent weeks, including Tuesday’s sell-off on the heels of weak manufacturing data. That could put increased importance on the jobless claims data, BMO Wealth Management Chief Investment Officer Yung-Yu Ma said on “Closing Bell.”
“That’s more of a forward-looking indicator. As long as those stay low — people have jobs, people remain confident in the ability to find jobs or comfortable in the jobs that they have — we think that they will continue to spend. So as long as those numbers stay low, if we get some blips in the overall monthly jobs report that shows weakness on the edges, we’re not quite as concerned,” Ma said.
The employment data could play a key role in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later this month. Ma said he still believes the U.S. economy is on track for a “soft landing” and that the market rally should eventually broaden out. However, he added that there is likely to be continued market turbulence in the near term.
“We believe in it, we just think it’s going to be on pause for a few months because this high degree of uncertainty we have right now. There’s just too much that needs to resolved over the coming months. … It’s just very hard for the broadening-of-the-market theme to really gather momentum,” Ma said.
