(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were subdued on Thursday as investors awaited a private payrolls report, while Salesforce shares declined after a downbeat revenue forecast.
A series of labor market datasets is on tap. The ADP report for August measuring private payrolls is expected at 8.15 a.m. ET, a weekly reading of jobless claims at 8.30 a.m. ET, while the highly anticipated nonfarm payrolls data is due on Friday.
Salesforce fell 6.6% in premarket trading after the cloud company forecast third-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, signaling lagging monetization for its AI agent platform.
AI-linked firms have driven U.S. stock indexes to record highs this year, but their rally lost some steam after quarterly updates from some firms including Nvidia failed to impress investors.
Markets had earlier adopted a dovish tone, after July’s payrolls figures painted a bleak picture of the labor market and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged rising risks to employment late in August.
Traders were already pricing in a more than 90% chance of a September cut when a weak July job openings report on Wednesday pushed them to over 97%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
Investors will also watch U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee, economic advisor Stephen Miran, testify in a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday to fill Fed Governor Adriana Kugler’s seat, which she resigned last month.
At 05:25 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 9 points, or 0.02%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 9.25 points, or 0.14%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 47.25 points, or 0.20%.
American Eagle Outfitters soared over 23% after the apparel company forecast third-quarter comparable sales above estimates on Wednesday, as its celebrity partnerships boosted demand.
All three indexes started September on the back foot as rising yields on longer-dated Treasuries pressured equities. September has been historically bad, with the benchmark S&P 500 losing 1.5% on average in the month since 2000, according to LSEG data.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed higher on Wednesday on a boost from Google-parent Alphabet hitting an intraday record high after a Washington judge ruled the company would not have to sell its Chrome browser. The stock fell 0.8% on Thursday.
Fed policymakers John Williams and Austan Goolsbee are set to deliver speeches on the day. Central bank officials had said on Wednesday that labor market worries continued to animate their belief that rate cuts still lay ahead for the central bank.
In other stocks, Figma fell 15.2% after the design software firm’s first quarterly results as a public company failed to impress investors, who had rallied behind its blowout July debut.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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