Futures struggle for direction before closely watched jobs report

[June 04, 2021]  By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were listless on Friday as investors were on the fence ahead of a crucial report that is likely to show jobs growth accelerated last month, possibly fanning fears over inflation and easing of the Federal Reserve's support.

 A Wall St. sign is seen near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 4, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The Labor Department's report at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT) is expected to show nonfarm payrolls increased by 650,000 jobs in May, after an unexpected slowdown in labor market in April.

A stronger-than-expected reading could further stoke worries that the robust economic recovery could push the Fed to contemplate paring back its bond buying and raising interest rates.

"Any major surprise today could go a long way in shaping the narrative around the Fed's normalization timeline," said Marios Hadjikyriacos, investment analyst for XM.

"The market reaction will depend on the size of any surprise."

Wall Street's main indexes slipped on Thursday, weighed down by tech stocks after a better-than-expected weekly unemployment report and monthly private payrolls along with service sector data.

At 6:30 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 57 points, or 0.16%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 3.5 points, or 0.03%.

Facebook Inc dropped 1.1% after EU antitrust regulators opened an investigation into the world's largest social network's use of advertising data to see whether it breached EU rules.

Shares of so-called "meme-stocks" weakened in early trade, with AMC Entertainment down nearly 10% a day after the Reddit darling completed its second share offering this week.

Shares of Koss Corp, BlackBerry and GameStop dropped between 2% and 5%.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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