US equity markets were mostly tracking in the green before the opening bell Thursday as traders await a key employment report for June.
The S&P 500 was slightly in the green in premarket activity, while the Nasdaq was off 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%. The indexes finished the previous trading session lower.
US markets will be closed on Friday in observance of the Independence Day holiday, which falls on a Saturday this year.
The nonfarm payrolls report for last month is scheduled to be released at 8:30 am ET. Government data is expected to show that the US economy added 115,000 jobs in June, compared with a 172,000 gain reported for the month prior, according to a Bloomberg poll.
Employment in the US private sector increased less than expected in June, ADP (ADP) data showed Wednesday. Separately, Challenger Gray & Christmas said American employers announced 45,849 layoffs last month, down 53% from May and 4% from a year earlier. The reading marked the lowest monthly total since December 2025.
Earlier in the week, government data showed job openings were little changed in May as hiring fell and separations rose.
Treasury yields were trending upwards in premarket action, with the two-year rate rising 0.8 basis points to 4.17% and the 10-year rate adding 1.8 basis points to 4.49%.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said Wednesday that inflation risks have eased, suggesting the central bank may be headed for another policy pause.
The Fed remains committed to delivering price stability in the US, he said, reiterating what the Federal Open Market Committee said in its June policy statement.
"Inflation risks have come down," Warsh said at a European Central Bank forum in Portugal. "If there were people in household or the business sector or the financial markets who thought that this central bank was going to be comfortable with an inflation objective above 2%, well, I guess they'd be disappointed."
Markets widely expect the Fed to keep rates unchanged again when it meets toward the end of July, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Thursday's economic calendar also has the weekly jobless claims bulletin at 8:30 am and the weekly Baker Hughes oil-and-gas rig count at 1 pm. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly is slated to speak at 7:45 am.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that negotiations with Iran in Qatar were progressing, according to CNBC. "The denuclearization of Iran is moving along well," according to Trump. "They've had very good meetings and we'll see."
US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff landed in Qatar on Tuesday for technical discussions tied to the initial agreement between Washington and Tehran.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry said "positive progress" had been made in talks, Bloomberg News reported.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil decreased 1.4% to $67.60 a barrel before the open, while Brent slipped 1.3% to $70.66.
Shares of Meta Platforms (META) nudged 0.1% lower pre-bell after finishing Wednesday trading with an 8.8% jump.
The Facebook and WhatsApp parent was reported to be building a cloud infrastructure business to sell access to artificial intelligence computing power and models, setting up a new area of competition with Amazon (AMZN) Web Services, Microsoft (MSFT) Azure, and Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google Cloud.
Micron Technology (MU) fell nearly 2% while CoreWeave (CRWV) slipped 1.5%.
Gold was slightly in the green at $4,083 per troy ounce, while bitcoin rose 1.7% to $61,199.
