US pre-open: Futures lower ahead of Powell's ECB speech

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Tuesday as market participants looked ahead to a speech from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. As of 1215 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.29%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.34% and 0.43% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 50.66 points higher on Monday, reversing losses recorded in the previous session.

Powell will deliver a speech before the European Central Bank Forum at 1430 BST, where he will join the likes of ECB president Christine Lagarde and Banco Central do Brasil governor Roberto Campos Neto.

On the macro front, May;s JOLTS job openings figures will be published at 1500 BST, with economists expecting to see job openings drop from 8.1m to 7.9m.

Zaye Capital's Naeem Aslam said: "Over in the US, there are two important things to watch out for: Firstly, we have the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, along with the president of the ECB, as previously mentioned. Second, there is the JOLTS data. The expectations for the JOLTS job opening number are 7.96m, while the previous number came in at 8.06m.

"Therefore, if the actual number aligns with the forecast, the Fed will face less pressure to rationalise the ongoing job market weakness. However, if the number falls far away from expectations, then we could actually be looking at a situation where bad news may become good news as market players will continue to think that it is the Fed's hawkish monetary policy that is responsible for the slowdown in the job market, and they need to get their act together in order to stop further weakness in the market."

Markets will shut early on Wednesday and will remain closed on Thursday for the 4th of July holiday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com