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US Equity Futures Little Changed Thursday Pre-Bell as Investors Await Key Employment Data

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US stock futures were quiet in Thursday's premarket session as investors awaited key employment data set for release later in the morning.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.2%, S&P 500 futures were up close to 0.1%, and Nasdaq futures slipped 0.2%.

Oil prices were lower, with front-month global benchmarks Brent crude dropping 1.7% to $70.38 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude was down 1.9% to $67.27 a barrel.

Investors are looking ahead to the weekly initial jobless claims data and the unemployment and average hourly earnings figures for June, all of which will be released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 am ET.

Initial jobless claims are expected to rise to 218,000 for the week ended June 27, from 215,000 the previous week, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg. The unemployment rate for June is forecast to remain at 4.3%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise by 0.3% from May, according to Bloomberg.

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US Equity Markets End Lower as Technology Sector Slides

US equity indexes fell Wednesday as the technology sector paced declines and traders assessed Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's comments on inflation.* Warsh said price risks have eased in recent weeks and reiterated his aim to bring inflation down to the Fed's 2% target, Bloomberg reported.* The US and Iran held indirect technical talks in Doha aimed at securing shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz and a lasting ceasefire, Reuters reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the talks and an Iranian official.* The Institute for Supply Management's US manufacturing index fell to 53.3 in June from 54 in May, compared with forecasts for 53.9 in a Bloomberg poll.* The S&P Global US manufacturing index for June was revised down to 53.9 from the flash reading of 55.7, versus expectations that the flash reading would be unrevised.* August West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell $1.52 to settle at $67.98 per barrel, while August Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen down $1.83 at $71.13.* Micron Technology (MU) signed a strategic customer agreement with General Motors (GM) to provide a long-term supply of memory and storage platforms for the automaker's future vehicle production. Micron shares still fell 11%.* Meta Platforms (META) is building a cloud infrastructure business to sell access to AI computing power and models, setting up competition with Amazon (AMZN) Web Services, Microsoft (MSFT) Azure, and Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google Cloud, Bloomberg reported. Meta shares rose 8.8%, the second-biggest gainer on the Nasdaq.

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Update: US Equity Indexes Mixed as Technology Slides, Warsh Reinforces Fed's Focus on Inflation

(Updates with index/price moves and geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)US equity indexes traded mixed ahead of Wednesday's close, with communication services topping sector charts while technology chipped away, and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh reiterated his focus on inflation.The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.5% to 26,080.9, after ending Q2 with gains previously seen six years ago. The S&P 500 shed 0.1% to 7,491.7, extending gains after closing Q2 with gains that were the highest since Q2 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained 0.1% higher at 52,359.2, after hitting a new record earlier in the session. The Dow capped the strongest first half in five years on Tuesday.In company news, Meta Platforms (META) is building a cloud infrastructure business to sell access to AI computing power and models, setting up a new area of competition with Amazon (AMZN) Web Services, Microsoft (MSFT) Azure, and Alphabet's (GOO, GOOGL) Google Cloud, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares of Meta surged 8.7%, one of the S&P 500's and the Nasdaq's top gainers.Of the bottom 10 stocks with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion each, eight were technology companies, according to data compiled by Finviz. Within these tech firms, the majority were either semiconductors or semiconductor equipment and materials. The steepest decliner in the group was KLA. (KLAC), down 13%.Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said price risks have dissipated in recent weeks, while repeating his determination to ease inflation to the US central bank's 2% target, Bloomberg reported."Expectations of inflation over the first four weeks of this period have come down, [and] inflation risks have come down," Warsh said Wednesday at the European Central Bank's annual Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal.Most US Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year jumping 5.5 basis points to 4.48%. The two-year rate climbed 3.1 basis points to 4.17%.Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said meetings with Qatari and Pakistani officials in Doha have ended and that no direct talks took place between the Iranian and American delegations, according to Al Jazeera, a Middle East news agency. Gharibabadi said a communication channel will be established to report and discuss breaches of the memorandum of understanding reached between the US and Iran, Al Jazeera cited Iran's official news agency, IRNA.The front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent declined 2.4% to $71.21 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate retreated 2% to $68.12 per barrel.

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