Nasdaq, S&P, Dow futures tick up as more labor market data arrives, Powell redux (SPX)

Stock index futures were higher Thursday, and the market looks to ignore a wait-and-see session with the jobs report on the horizon.

Nasdaq 100 futures (NDX:IND) +0.6%, S&P futures (SPX) +0.4% and Dow futures (INDU) +0.3% were higher.

Growth is on the front foot again and Nvidia (NVDA) is very close to adding $1T in market cap in this year alone.

Fed Chairman Jay Powell returns to Capitol Hill this morning, appearing before the Senate Banking Committee. On Wednesday, traders appeared relieved he didn’t come out more hawkish.

“Yesterday’s remarks were consistent with three or four rate cuts this year, but there was surprise suggestion that a proposed tightening of bank regulation may be rethought,” UBS’ Paul Donovan said.

Rates were lower. The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) was lower by 5 basis points to 4.15%. The 2-year yield (US2Y) fell 4 basis points to 4.51%.

ING said yesterday’s Treasury market saw more volatility from the New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) capital raise than Powell.

“While wider risk sentiment still looks robust, the reaction in Treasuries highlights heightened sensitivities to any signs of stress – or downward data surprises as seen in recent days,” ING added.

This morning brings some more numbers on the labor market ahead of the February payrolls report on Friday.

“If (payrolls are) weak, I’ll be more inclined to see the strong data for January as a curveball,” SocGen’s Kit Juckes said. “If they’re strong, I’ll expect forecasters to rethink the Fed path, again. They’ll probably be dull!”

Wednesday saw the JOLTS quits rate fall to 2.1%, the lowest level since August 2020.

“If sustained, the latest dip in the quits rate points to year-on-year growth in the ECI dropping to barely 3% by the middle of this year – below its pace in 2019 – from 4.3% in the final quarter of last year,” Pantheon Macro’s Ian Shepherdson said.

For Thursday, the initial jobless claims for the week of March 2 were unchanged at 217K, matching the consensus estimate. The previous week’s initial claims were revised from 215K.