Feb 11 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were subdued on Wednesday as investors awaited crucial jobs data, delayed by a partial government shutdown, while keeping a close watch on corporate earnings.
The employment report is expected to show an uptick in U.S. job growth despite a sluggish labor market, due to tariff uncertainty and worker constraints amid tighter immigration enforcement.
The data could temper expectations for the central bank’s rate cuts, with retail sales stalling unexpectedly and raising the probability of an interest-rate reduction in April to 35.5% from the prior day’s 32.2%, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Markets still price in the first cut to take place in June, when U.S. President Donald Trump’s Fed chair nominee, Kevin Warsh, is expected to take charge, pending Senate approval.
Still, any surprises in the labor figures or Friday’s crucial inflation data could quickly change the rate outlook.
At 05:08 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 13 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis dropped 6.5 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis fell 64.75 points, or 0.26%.
With quarterly earnings still drawing investor attention, shares of cloud and network security provider Cloudflare jumped 14% after a better-than-expected forecast for annual and first-quarter sales.
AI-led disruption has come under renewed scrutiny recently, with markets punishing industries and sectors expected to be impacted. Following last week’s rout of software stocks, brokerages came under pressure on Tuesday after startup Altruist’s AI-enabled tax-planning features stoked worries.
Robinhood’s shares dropped 7.2% after the retail brokerage posted fourth-quarter revenue below Wall Street expectations.
Notable company results before the bell include Kraft Heinz, T-Mobile, Shopify and Humana
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed lower on Tuesday, while the Dow notched its third record close in a row. Still, the benchmark S&P 500 wasn’t too far off its record high in January-end.
Meanwhile, a narrowly divided U.S. House of Representatives rejected a bid by Republicans on Tuesday to block legislative challenges to Trump’s tariffs, a move that could allow Democrats to try to reverse the tariffs imposed on Canada. A Supreme Court ruling on the legality of the tariffs is also expected in the next few months.
In other movers, Moderna’s shares dipped 8.8% after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision to not review the drugmaker’s approval application for its influenza vaccine.
Shares of Lyft tumbled 17% after the ride-hailing company’s quarterly profit forecast and annual ride volumes fell short of Wall Street expectations.
(Reporting by Twesha Dikshit; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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