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The
blue-chip Dow and the benchmark S&P 500 recovered from early
August's losses and ended higher on Friday, notching their
fourth-straight month in gains, after data pointed to a robust
economy and moderating price pressures.
The Dow is at a record high and the S&P 500 is within 1% of its
own milestone as markets enter into what has been a historically
weak month for the main indexes on average.
Traders continue to scour for reassuring signs about the
economy, with the release of the monthly ISM manufacturing
survey due at 10 a.m. ET. Economists forecast the manufacturing
index to rise to 47.5, but remain in contractionary territory.
A number of labor market numbers will also be parsed through the
week, ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls figure for the
previous month. The jobs market has come under greater scrutiny,
after July's report hinted at a greater-than-expected slowdown,
that consequently sparked a global selloff in riskier assets.
The central bank's meeting later in the month will be closely
observed, following Chair Jerome Powell's recent support for
forthcoming policy adjustment. Odds of a 25-basis point interest
rate cut are at 69%, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool,
while those for a bigger 50 bps reduction are at 31%.
At 05:30 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 178 points, or 0.43%,
S&P 500 E-minis were down 30 points, or 0.53%, Nasdaq 100
E-minis were down 161 points, or 0.83%.
Rate-sensitive chip stocks led premarket declines, with Nvidia
down 2.3%, Broadcom dropping 1.8%, Advanced Micro Devices losing
1.3%, after the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index's 2.6% jump
on Friday.
Among others, Tesla added nearly 1%, after a report said it
plans to produce a six-seat variant of its Model Y car in China
from late 2025. Separately, the automaker's sales in China
logged their best month for the year so far in August.
Boeing lost 2.6% after brokerage Wells Fargo downgraded the
planemaker to "underweight" from "equal weight".
U.S. Steel dropped 5% after Democratic presidential candidate
Kamala Harris expressed her concern about the steel firm being
acquired by Japan's Nippon Steel.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak
Dasgupta)
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