(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as investors awaited more data to gauge the strength of the labor market, while elevated Treasury yields still pointed to worries about high interest rates for a prolonged period.
Although longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields eased from 16-year highs on Wednesday, investors remain concerned that the elevated levels may pressure equities.
Worries about U.S. government spending and its ballooning budget deficit have added to uncertainty around the interest rates trajectory, contributing to a steep selloff that have caused a rout in Treasury prices and a spike in yields.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lost around 5% and 6% in September. Megacap growth stocks Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon.com and Alphabet fell between 0.3% and 0.6% in premarket trading on Thursday.
Following a mixed jobs reports earlier this week, focus will be on the more-comprehensive September non-farm payrolls data on Friday. Weekly jobless claims are also due later on Wednesday.
Traders put the chance of interest rates remaining unchanged in November and December at 80% and 63%, respectively, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
Federal Reserve policymakers including Cleveland’s Loretta Mester, Minneapolis’ Neel Kashkari, Richmond’s Thomas Barkin, San Francisco’s Mary Daly and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr are set to speak during the day.
The race to replace ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy took shape on Wednesday as Steve Scalise, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, and Jim Jordan, a leading antagonist of Democratic President Joe Biden, said they would seek the post.
At 5:24 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 131 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 16.75 points, or 0.39%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 53.5 points, or 0.36%.
Clorox fell 4.6% as the cleaning products maker said it expects to post a first-quarter loss.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
