Futures flat as investors eye Friday's jobs report

[March 08, 2017]  By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors treaded carefully ahead of a crucial jobs report on Friday that could firm up the chances of an interest rate hike next week.

Data on watch for Wednesday is a report on private sector hiring for February, due at 8:15 a.m. ET (1315 GMT). The report is seen as a precursor to the broader nonfarm payrolls data, which includes private and public sector jobs.

Economists polled by Reuters estimate 190,000 jobs were added in the private sector last month, compared with 246,000 in January.

Traders have priced in an all-but-certain quarter point rate increase during the Federal Reserve's meeting on March 14-15, but investors are keen to know whether the central bank would increase the pace of rate hikes.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen last week remarked that scaling back on monetary policy would likely not be as slow this year as they were in 2016 and 2015.

Though the markets have been more resilient to the prospects of higher rates now than they were last year, the chatter has put the brakes on a rally that took off on President Donald Trump's promise of tax reforms.

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked their first back-to-back losses in over one month on Tuesday.

The dollar gathered strength on Wednesday, while gold - which tends to lose value as rate rise - was lower.

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Oil could keep the markets in the red, as prices dropped about 1 percent following a report that showed a large rise in U.S. crude inventories. [O/R]

Among stocks moving premarket were Urban Outfitters, which dropped 5.1 percent to $24.11 following a sales miss that led to William Blair to downgrade the stock and others to cut price targets.

Geo Group fell 5.3 percent to $42.35 after the REIT priced an offering of six million shares at $41.75 per share, a 6.7 percent discount to its Tuesday close.

Futures snapshot at 7:00 a.m. ET:

Dow e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.06 percent, with 28,951 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.5 points, or 0.06 percent, with 132,727 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 2.25 points, or 0.04 percent, on volume of 24,951 contracts.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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