(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open subdued on Tuesday as investors refrained from placing big bets ahead of key economic data this week, including job openings figures due later in the day that will provide further clues on the state of the economy.
Multiple sets of economic data are scheduled to be released this week, including the personal consumption expenditures price index and non-farm payrolls.
The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show the number of job openings fell to 9.465 million from 9.582 million in July, signaling easing labor market pressures.
Lack of hawkish surprises in Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments at the Jackson Hole symposium last week had cushioned stocks on Monday, with the focus now on the economic data to gauge how long the central bank could keep interest rates elevated.
“Investors are reserved and waiting for more details as to what the Fed would do,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
“If it (job openings number) is weaker than expected, the market actually might like it because it would indicate that the job market is softening a little bit (and) maybe the Fed won’t be as aggressive.”
Traders’ bets of a pause in interest rate hikes in September stood at nearly 80.5%, while bets of at least a 25-basis point hike in November was nearly 49%, up from around 40% a week earlier, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 4.215%. Most megacap growth stocks edged lower, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) down 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.
Investors will also keep a close eye on the Conference Board’s consumer confidence report, due at 10 a.m. ET.
At 8:03 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 26 points, or 0.08%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 14.5 points, or 0.10%.
Shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) slipped 1.8% before the bell after J.P.Morgan removed the business software maker from its U.S. analyst focus list.
Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) rose more than 1% each after Citi upgraded the telecom companies to “buy” from “neutral”.
PDD Holdings rose 12.7% after the e-commerce firm beat second-quarter revenue estimates.
Catalent (NYSE:CTLT) climbed 3.8% after the contract drugmaker reached a settlement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management to conduct a review.
