By Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were mostly unchanged on Thursday following record highs for all three main indexes in the previous session, as investors awaited upcoming employment data.
The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the blue-chip Dow clocked record closing highs on Wednesday as technology shares rallied after upbeat results from companies including Salesforce and Marvell Technology.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared to signal support for a slower pace of interest-rate cuts ahead when he spoke on Wednesday, saying the economy was stronger at this point than the central bank had expected in September. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said there was “no sense of urgency” on reducing borrowing costs further.
Comments from Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin are due later in the day.
Still, traders currently see a 74% chance of the Fed easing monetary policy by 25 basis points at its December meeting, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
A reading of weekly jobless claims is due before markets open on the day, while the crucial monthly jobs report is scheduled to release on Friday.
“Ahead of a ‘live’ Fed policy meeting in December, we expect special factors including weather, the resolved Boeing strike and (U.S.) election effects to cloud the read on the job market,” BNP Paribas economists wrote in a note.
“Our forecasts imply a November jobs report that is just ambiguous enough – strong job growth but a slight rise in unemployment, alongside moderate gains in pay – to keep a December rate cut as our base case.”
At 06:55 a.m., Dow E-minis were down 18 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 3 points, or 0.05% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 18.75 points, or 0.09%.
Cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related stocks jumped in premarket trading after bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, stormed above the $100,000 mark for the first time.
Exchange operator Coinbase Global rose 3.5%, miner MARA Holdings added 5.6% and MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, advanced 6.5%.
Dollar General slipped 2% after the discount retail chain trimmed the upper end of its annual profit forecast.
Southwest Airlines gained 3.8% after the carrier raised its forecast for fourth-quarter revenue per available seat miles.
SentinelOne dropped 15% after the cybersecurity firm missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit.
Synopsys fell 7.6% after the chip design software firm forecast fiscal 2025 revenue below Wall Street expectations, in part due to a slump in China sales.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Pooja Desai)
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