US markets inch down modestly ahead of latest government data on jobs, inflation

Audio By Carbonatix

Wall Street inched slightly lower early Tuesday ahead of the release of U.S. employment and inflation reports that could drive the direction of interest rates.

Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.2% before the bell Tuesday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were unchanged. Nasdaq futures lost 0.2%.

Shares in Roomba maker iRobot sank more than 20% in premarket trading after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That was on top of a nearly 73% decline on Monday. The company known for its robotic vacuums said it doesn’t expect any disruptions to its devices as it is taken private.

Ford Motor Co. shares ticked up a little more than 1% after the automaker announced Monday that it is pivoting away from its once-ambitious electric vehicle plans amid financial losses and waning consumer demand. Ford, which has poured billions of dollars into electrification along with most of its industry peers, said it will no longer make the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.

The main focus on Wall Street this week will be several big updates on how the U.S. economy is faring.

Economists expect the jobs report from November, due Tuesday, to show employers added 40,000 more jobs than they cut during the month. An update on inflation Thursday is forecast to show U.S. consumers paid prices that were 3.1% higher in November than a year before.

Investors are hoping that the job market will weaken by just enough to get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, but not so much that the economy slips into recession. Lower rates help boost the economy and prices for investments, but also may worsen inflation.

Economists expect Tuesday’s report to show the unemployment rate at 4.4%, which would keep it near its worst level since 2021.

Also coming Thursday is the government's latest data on retail sales.

In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX lost 0.4%, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% lower. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.5%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 1.6% to 49,383.29 as preliminary factory data showed manufacturing slowing slightly. The S&P Global Flash purchasing managers index rose to 49.7 from 48.7 in November on a scale of up to 100 where 50 marks the cut off for expansion.

Investors are watching Japanese data carefully ahead of a Bank of Japan policy meeting on Friday that is widely expected to result in an interest rate hike that could rattle world bond, currency and cryptocurrency markets.

Chinese markets also retreated after figures for November, released Monday, came in weaker than expected. Retail sales rose at their slowest rate since 2022, during the pandemic, at 1.3% from a year earlier in November. Lending and investment also weakened.

“Overall, the data set confirms a loss of momentum into (the) year-end and is consistent with our growth forecasts that moderating to around 4%” in the last quarter of this year, Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.5% to 25,235.41, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 1.1% to 3,824.81.

South Korea's Kospi gave up 2.2% to 3,999.13 as technology shares dropped. Computer chipmaker SK Hynix skidded 4.3%, while Samsung Electronics fell 1.9%.

In Taiwan, the Taiex shed 1.2%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.4% to 8,598.90.

In energy trading early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 88 cents to $55.74 per barrel, ticking back up from its lowest level in more than four years. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 85 cents to $59.71 per barrel.