Wall Street to start lower as job data eyed

Wall Street is expected to open lower as investors focus on the latest US jobs data due shortly.

Ahead of Friday’s widely watched non-farm payroll numbers – which came in well below forecasts last month with a rise of only 266,000 – come the private payroll figures for May from ADP. They are expected to show an increase of 750,000, up from 742,000 in April. However last time round the survey gave little guidance as to the official figure.

Also due are the weekly jobless claims, which are expected to fall from 406,000 to a new post-pandemic low of 387,000. Deutsche Bank for one however is expecting a rise to 435,000.

So with investors torn between welcoming an economic recovery and worrying about inflation, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is forecast to open 198 points or 0.6% lower while the S&P 500 is set to fall 0.69% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.94%.

Four things to watch for on Thursday:

• Companies in the earnings diary today include semiconductor and software firm Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO), cybersecurity group Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) and athletic apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc (NASDAQ:LULU)
• Investors may also be keeping an eye on AGMs from NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which are due to kick off today
• Shares in cinema chain and Reddit memestock favourite AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) may also be in focus to see if the stock can continue its breakneck ascent
• On the macro front, aside from the jobs data there may also be interest in a number of US PMI readings

Story by ProactiveInvestors