By Ankika Biswas
(Reuters) – Nasdaq index futures fell on Friday after a revenue warning from Advanced Micro Devices Inc sparked losses in chipmakers, with investors awaiting data that is likely to show U.S. job growth slowed in September.
AMD lost 5.4% in premarket trading as its third-quarter revenue estimates were about a billion dollars less than previously forecast, signaling the chip slump could be much worse than expected.
Other chipmakers, Qualcomm Inc, Intel Corp, ON Semiconductors, Lam Research, and Nvidia Corp shed between 1.3% and 3%.
Stock futures were trading in a narrow range in anticipation of the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report, which will show nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 250,000 jobs last month after rising 315,000 in August.
Aggressive interest rate hikes have made businesses more cautious about the economy, but the labor market remains tight, giving the Federal Reserve enough room to continue its monetary tightening plan.
The report will also likely show the jobless rate remained unchanged at 3.7%.
“Any increase in the headline unemployment rate, would be key to any narrative around a Fed pivot,” said Michael Weisz, president of Yieldstreet.
“Our view is that the latest economic projections (by the Fed) indicate that not only is a recession inevitable but is being purposely engineered.”
At 6:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 33 points, or 0.11%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.05%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 39.75 points, or 0.34%.
All three main Wall Street indexes were set to snap a three-week losing streak, heading for their biggest weekly gain since late June.
Most rate-sensitive technology and growth stocks such as Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com, Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp were down between 0.2% and 0.5%.
Before closing lower on Thursday, markets briefly took comfort from data showing weekly jobless claims rising by the most in four months last week, raising hopes of some easing in the Fed’s rapid interest rate hikes.
With most Fed officials supporting the need for continued rapid rate hikes, investors will monitor comments from New York President John Williams, Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari, and Atlanta President Raphael Bostic for any slight deviation in narrative.
Meanwhile, top U.S. senators from both parties on Thursday gave momentum to a so-called No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels bill pressuring OPEC+, after the group announced a deep cut in oil production worsening inflation woes.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
