Futures tread water as data, Fed meeting minutes awaited
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Paramount jumps on report of Skydance Media deal
Tesla extends gains
ADP, jobless claims data on deck
Futures: Dow up 0.11%, S&P 500 and Nasdaq flat
Updated at 7:09 a.m. ET/1109 GMT
By Ankika Biswas and Lisa Pauline Mattackal
July 3 (Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were little changedon Wednesday ahead of a holiday-shortened trading session, while markets also gearedup for a slew of economic data andminutes from the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting for more direction.
The equity market will close early on Wednesday and stay shut on Thursday on account of U.S. Independence Day, keeping trading volumes thin throughout the week.
The ADPNational Employment report and weekly jobless claims are due before the opening bell, a day after data showed higher U.S. job openings as well as layoffs in May. This also comes ahead of Friday's closely watched non-farm payrolls data.
"Our view remains that we should see a slowing down of the employment data over the coming months. If employment slows and the disinflation trend is intact, Fed will deliver a September rate cut," Jefferies chief Europe economist Mohit Kumar wrote.
Market participants see a 65% chance of the first rate cut in September, and around two cuts by year end, as per LSEG's FedWatch data.
The other data points on the watch list include factory orders and services PMIs after markets open, along with the Fed's June meeting minutes at 2 p.m. ET.
Gains in Tesla and megacap stocks helped the Nasdaq .IXIC and the S&P 500 .SPX to close at record highs on Tuesday, a day that also saw Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledge the "disinflationary path," while also flagging the need for more data before cutting interest rates.
"A 25-bps cut may not make much difference to the economy, but if the Fed is proactive, then no one can blame Powell for not doing his job by keeping rates higher for longer and engineering a slowdown," Jefferies' Kumar added.
Tesla TSLA.O rose 2.7% premarket after hitting its highest level since January on Tuesday following a smaller-than-expected drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries.
Nvidia NVDA.O slipped 0.6%, in a recent choppy run for the AI chip leader after its staggering gains since 2023, even when other semiconductor stocks held their ground on the day.
Other megacaps Alphabet GOOGL.O, Microsoft MSFT.O, Meta Platforms META.O and Amazon AMZN.O inched up between 0.2% and 0.6%.
As the S&P 500 has jumped over 15% in the first half of 2024, largely supported by top-tier high momentum technology-related stocks, the benchmark index's equal-weighted counterpart .SPXEW only rose 5%, signaling the lack of a broad-based market strength.
At 7:09 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 42 points, or 0.11%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 1.5 points, or 0.03%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 2.5 points, or 0.01%.
Among other premarket movers, Paramount Global PARA.O jumped 11.7% after Shari Redstone's National Amusements reached a preliminary deal to sell its controlling interest in the media giant to David Ellison's Skydance Media.
Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel
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