By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to open flat to slightly lower after a report showed fewer-than-expected jobs additions in the previous month, aiding expectations that the Federal Reserve will deliver an upsized interest rate cut in September.
A Labor Department report on Friday showed nonfarm payrolls rose by 142,000 in August, compared with estimates of 160,000, as per economists polled by Reuters.
The unemployment rate eased to 4.2% and was in line with expectations. It stood at 4.3% a month earlier.
Traders' bets for a 25-basis point interest rate cut in September eased to 49%, according to the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch Tool, while those for a 50-bps reduction have risen to 51% from 30% a week earlier.
Some rate-sensitive growth stocks such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.6%, while Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained more than 0.2% each as Treasury yields dropped.
"The data overall was relatively in line, but maybe a touch weaker than expected," said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.
"(Bets) have shifted more toward 50 bps and they should because there's just frankly zero reason for the Fed to be as tight as they are."
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said a better balanced economy has opened the door to cutting rates, with the full course of action to be determined by how the economy performs.
The labor market has come under scrutiny after an unexpected rise in the jobless rate sparked recession fears nearly a month ago and had sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq down more than 10% into correction territory and led to a selloff in global markets.
At 08:50 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 21 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 4.75 points, or 0.09% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 21.5 points, or 0.11%.
The S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow hit a more than three-week low on Thursday after a set of mixed economic data fueled uncertainty on the pace of monetary policy easing.
September has been historically weak for U.S. equities, with the benchmark S&P 500 down about 1.2% for the month on average since 1928.
The S&P 500 is on track for a weekly drop of more than 2%, its steepest decline in nearly five months, led by a near 5% drop in technology stocks.
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) slid 6.5% after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue slightly below estimates, hurt by sluggish spending in its broadband segment.
Other chip stocks such as Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) dropped 0.9% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) shed 0.8%. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index is set for its biggest weekly drop in more than a month.
Super Micro Computer dropped 3% after brokerage J.P.Morgan downgraded the AI server maker's shares to "neutral" from "overweight".
Mobileye Global (NASDAQ:MBLY) fell 3.4% after a report that top shareholder Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is exploring a sale of part of its stake in the automotive tech firm.
UiPath (NYSE:PATH) jumped 9% after the enterprise automation and AI software company raised its annual revenue forecast.