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Futures off: Dow 0.43%, S&P 500 0.53%, Nasdaq 0.83%
Sept 3 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures traded lower
on Tuesday as caution prevailed ahead of a slew of economic data
reports due through the week that could influence the extent of
monetary policy easing by the Federal Reserve this year.
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 ( NVDA ) down 2.3%, Broadcom ( AVGO ) dropping 1.8%,
Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) 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 ( BA ) 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 ( NISTF ).