Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on June 3, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Stock futures gained as AI-darling Nvidia rose to a new record and as weak private labor market data gave investors hope the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates later this year.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 88 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose around 0.5%. Nvidia climbed more than 1% before the opening bell and extended gains from a day earlier which saw the chipmaker rise to a fresh record high.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise climbed more than 14% after surpassing Wall Street expectations on both lines in its fiscal second quarter. CrowdStrike jumped almost 7% on stronger-than-expected earnings and guidance. Fellow technology firm Meta Platforms climbed 1%.
Private payroll data from ADP showed hiring slowed in to 152,000 last month. Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipated private employers added 175,000 jobs in May. The data is the latest sign of weakness in the labor market that investors hope will give the Federal Reserve enough evidence to cut benchmark interest rates. The latest reading on the labor market sent yields sliding further, adding to weakness seen so far in June.
Gains on Wall Street were limited, however, as some investors worry that weak economic data could be a sign of a bigger economic contraction that would outweigh any rate-cut impact
Traders will also monitor data on services and nonmanufacturing purchasing due Wednesday. After that, attention will turn to weekly jobless claims numbers on Thursday and Friday’s all-important May jobs report.
Tuesday brought the first of several data points offering insight to the state of the labor market, an important topic for traders looking for signs that the Federal Reserve has seen enough economic tightening to begin cutting interest rates. Job opening and labor turnover data came out Tuesday morning â known as JOLTS â and showed 8.059 million vacancies in April, the lowest level in more than three years. It also came in well below the 8.4 million consensus forecast from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Those moves follow a muted but winning day on Wall Street. The Dow climbed about 140 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each added close to 0.2%.
On the earnings front, discount retailer Dollar Tree is expected to share results before the bell. Athleisure maker Lululemon is slated to post earnings after the market closes.
Source Agencies
