US stock futures muted as rate cut bets wane ahead of Jackson Hole

Investing.com-- U.S. stock index futures tread water on Thursday evening with investors largely keeping to the sidelines in anticipation of more economic cues from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s address at the Jackson Hole Symposium.

Futures steadied after Wall Street clocked five straight days of losses, amid waning confidence that the Fed will cut interest rates in September. A sharp selldown in technology shares– amid profit-taking in the sector and growing doubts over artificial intelligence– weighed on Wall Street.

Mixed second-quarter earnings from top retailer Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) also rattled U.S. markets, with the stock tumbling over 4%.

S&P 500 Futures rose slightly to 6,391.50 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures were flat at 23,217.0 points by 20:44 ET (00:44 GMT). Dow Jones Futures rose 0.1% to 44,890.0 points.

Powell speech at Jackson Hole in focus

Powell is set to speak at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday, potentially offering up more cues on the economy and the Fed’s plans for interest rates.

His address comes amid increasing doubts over whether the Fed has enough impetus to cut rates in September.

The minutes of the Fed’s late-July meeting showed policymakers still remained cautious over cutting interest rates in the near-term, especially amid uncertainty over the inflationary impact of President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Policymakers were also seen focusing more on managing inflation than stemming more labor market weakness.

Powell is facing persistent pressure from Trump and his allies to cut interest rates soon, but has remained largely non-committal towards further easing.

Markets were seen steadily trimming bets on a September rate cut this week, especially following the release of sticky inflation data for July.

Fed fund futures are pricing in a 73.1% chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in September, down sharply from the 90.2% chance seen a week ago, CME Fedwatch showed.

Wall St pressured by tech losses, Walmart earnings

Wall Street indexes closed lower on Thursday, with the S&P 500 clocking a fifth consecutive session of declines.

This came amid sustained losses in tech stocks, as investors questioned the profitability of continued, outsized investments in artificial intelligence. A critical report from a branch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology factored into this week’s sell-off.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was among the worst hit by this sell-down, and was nursing a 3% loss this week.

Mixed earnings from Walmart also weighed. While the company did hike its annual forecasts, citing robust consumer demand, its second-quarter earnings also missed expectations, amid increasing pressure on margins from Trump’s tariffs.

Walmart fell 4.5% on Thursday and was muted in aftermarket trade.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% to 6,370.16 points on Thursday. The NASDAQ Composite fell 0.3% to 21,100.31 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 44,785.50 points. The Nasdaq was trading down 2.4% so far this week.

Economic data also provided mixed cues. While purchasing managers index data read stronger than expected for August, a bigger-than-expected increase in initial jobless claims reflected sustained cooling in the labor market.