On Thursday, U.S. stock index futures gained as bond rates and oil prices dipped ahead of OPEC’s meeting. 

Investors were also digesting data on weekly unemployment benefits and private-sector jobs for May.

What is the process of trading in equity futures?

• There was a 0.4% increase in S&P 500 futures to 4,116.25. There was an increase of 121 points (0.4 percent) in the DJIA futures to 32,919.
• Nasdaq-100 futures rose by 0.5 percent to 12,609.75 points in the first quarter.
• For the week, Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 index SPX  both declined 0.7%; the DJIA fell 176.89 points, or 0.5%, to 32,813.23.

What’s influencing the market prices?

It was reported on Thursday that private-sector payrolls increased by 128,000 in May. They surveyed a group of economists who predicted a rise of 299,000 jobs in the private sector.

First-time jobless claims declined by 11,000 to 200,000 in the week ending May 28, while productivity in the first quarter was revised downward to a negative 7.3% from an original negative 7.5%.

First-quarter unit labor costs were also lifted upward to 12.6% from an earlier estimate of 11.6%.

This report comes a day before the Labor Department releases its May nonfarm payroll statistics. However,  analysts caution that the ADP data has been a poor monthly predictor of the official findings.

We expect a 300,000-job increase from the official nonfarm payroll data when it is announced on Friday; despite the ADP report showing a severe drop in private payroll employment growth in May to only 128,000,” noted analysts at Capital Economics.

Investors will hear from Loretta Mester, president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve, at 1 p.m. EDT.

Expectations that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates by half a percentage point in June and July have weighed on equities and bonds, resulting in higher Treasury yields.

The 10-year note yield, TMUBMUSD10Y, fell roughly 3 basis points to 2.90 percent on Thursday, with Wall Street pointing to a bullish day.

A story in the Financial Times said that Saudi Arabia was ready to pump additional oil if the Russian supply fell drastically owing to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, which sent oil prices back down roughly 1 percent each for the US and Brent crude.

As Russian oil production declines, will OPEC be able to cover the void? Please don’t put your faith in it.

Which corporations are being scrutinized?

Online pet-products retailer Chewy Inc. surged 17 percent in premarket trade after unexpectedly disclosing a first-quarter net profit.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard Enterprises Co. plunged 6% after the company reported lower than expected profits and sales.

As forecasted by Wall Street, shares of C3 also fell by 22%.

Gaming retailer, GameStop Corp., had its losses less than expected, although its inventory rose sharply. As of early morning trade, shares of the company remained almost unchanged.

What are the other assets being traded?

An index of the U.S. dollar’s value versus six other major currencies, the DXY lost 0.2 percent.

BTCUSD was trading 5.3% lower, below the $30,000 threshold.

The Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.5 percent in European shares. Stocks in London were not traded because of the Queen’s Jubilee long weekend.

SHCOMP finished up 0.4 percent in China; HSI -1.0% was down 0.9 percent in Hong Kong; and the Nikkei225, -0.16% was down 0.1 percent in Japan, all in Asia.

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