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Salesforce shares rose 5.6% before the bell on upbeat annual and
quarterly sales forecasts from the cloud-based software
provider.
The S&P 500 index closed at a near three-week high on Wednesday
after an ADP survey showed softer-than-expected growth in
private payrolls, reinforcing hopes of a pause in the Federal
Reserve's rate-hike cycle.
Investors now await the price consumption expenditure (PCE)
index for July, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, due at
8:30 a.m. ET. The core PCE price index is expected to have
climbed 4.2% in the 12 months through July, according to
economists polled by Reuters.
"The markets are so data driven right now, aping the stance
adopted by central bankers, and it feels like a worse than
expected reading could extinguish the recently improved
sentiment," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
"If it comes in higher than anticipated then we could see
renewed nervousness ahead of the Fed's meeting next month."
Traders' bets on the Fed leaving interest rates unchanged in its
September meeting stood at 88.5%, while odds of a pause in the
November meeting rose to nearly 56% from 50% a day earlier,
according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Investors also parsed Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic's
comments as he laid out a case against any further U.S. interest
rate hikes, saying monetary policy was tight enough to bring
inflation down to 2% over a "reasonable" period.
Weighing on sentiment, China's manufacturing activity contracted
for a fifth straight month, stoking concerns about demand
prospects in the world's second largest economy.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies including PDD Holdings,
JD.com, Baidu and Alibaba fell between 1.3% and 3.0%.
At 5:52 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 94 points, or 0.27%, S&P
500 e-minis were up 0.5 points, or 0.01%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis
were down 30.25 points, or 0.2%.
Among other stocks, Victoria's Secret & Co fell 6.3% after the
company forecast a decline in its third-quarter sales and missed
its second-quarter results estimates.
(Reporting by Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay
Dwivedi)
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