(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were subdued on Tuesday after the major indexes posted near-record closing highs in the previous session and investors remained cautious ahead of an impending employment rate revision.
A preliminary estimate of the nonfarm payrolls benchmark published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is due at 10 a.m. ET, with economists predicting that the level of U.S. employment for the 12 months through March could be slashed by as much as a million jobs.
U.S. job numbers have given investors and the U.S. Federal Reserve cause for concern, with nonfarm payroll data for July and August confirming weakening labor market conditions.
The latest report has led traders to fully price in a 25-basis-point reduction in interest rates next week, while bets also surfaced for a larger 50-bps trim, which stand at 11.8%, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
At 05:22 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis rose 12 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis gained 8 points, or 0.12%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 50.25 points, or 0.21%.
Meanwhile, Nebius jumped 49% in premarket trading after the AI infrastructure firm signed a $17.4-billion deal with Microsoft. Rival CoreWeave also gained, adding 6.1%.
Inflation reports due this week will also be on investors’ radar to gauge the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies on the U.S. economy, and whether a case could be made for a bigger rate cut.
The three main indexes closed higher on Monday, with the Nasdaq notching a record close, lifted by a rally in chip major Broadcom.
Wall Street has had a broadly positive start to September, a month deemed historically bad for U.S. equities, with the benchmark index losing 1.5% on average since 2000, data compiled by LSEG showed.
In other stocks, U.S.-listed shares of Teck Resources jumped 9.1% before the bell after the miner agreed to merge with London-listed Anglo American on Tuesday.
Tourmaline Bio jumped more than 56% after Swiss pharma giant Novartis said it would acquire the biopharmaceutical company for $1.4 billion.
(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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