US pre-open: Dow looks to log fifth winning session

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were little changed ahead of the bell on Tuesday as the blue-chip Dow Jones looks to register its fifth positive session in a row. As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.07%, while S&P 500 futures were 0.04% firmer and Nasdaq-100 futures had the index opening 0.13% weaker.

The Dow closed 176.59 points higher on Monday as sentiment continued to get a boost from last week's nonfarm payrolls data thanks to the combination of higher unemployment and weaker-than-expected payrolls and average earnings figures.

ARJ Capital's Manoj Ladwa said: "The data marks the first drop in the NFP reading since last year. The data has fed into a move lower in USD with traders sensing that Fed easing expectations will likely take on fresh focus in the coming months. Continued robust growth in the US jobs market has been one of the key drivers of the bullish USD story in recent months.

"With jobs seeing a sharp slowdown in growth and with wages weakening too, traders will now be closely watching incoming inflation and inflation-linked data. The Fed has signalled its desire to press ahead with easing, but is so far being hindered by sticky inflation. With jobs growth slowing now, however, a fresh drop in inflation should see traders bringing forward Fed easing to September again, weighing on USD.

In the corporate space, media giant Disney posted better-than-expected quarterly numbers on Monday afternoon, revealing that its streaming business had nearly broken even during Q1.

On the macro front, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis head Neel Kashkari will deliver a speech at 1630 BST.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com