Wall Street: treading water on eve of jobs report

(CercleFinance.com) - Wall Street is set to open little changed on Thursday morning, with investors reluctant to commit on the eve of the release of the eagerly-awaited employment figures.


Half an hour before the opening, the Dow Jones futures contract was stable, but the Nasdaq futures contract advanced by 0.5%, heralding a session start of around equilibrium.

Tomorrow's closely-watched job creation figures will give an indication of the health of the US economy, and may provide clues as to the timing of the Fed's rate cuts.

Economists are forecasting an average of 175,000 job creations in November, following the 150,000 announced for October, and a stable unemployment rate of 3.9%.

The latest indicators measuring the job market - whether the ADP survey or the JOLTS report - have confirmed the scenario of a slowdown in hiring, arguing for a moderation in the Fed's monetary policy.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch barometer, the probability of a rate cut is now estimated at almost 55% in March, compared with 22% a month ago.

Weekly jobless claims, published this morning, were stable.

The trend should nevertheless benefit from investors' renewed enthusiasm for major technology stocks and the undiminished craze for artificial intelligence (AI).

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is expected to rise by over 3% in the wake of the launch of its Gemini language model, designed to compete with ChatGPT.

AMD is also expected to start the session in the green following the presentation of its new AI chip, which is expected to be on a par with Nvidia's products.

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