DJIA futures up 116 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 10 May - US futures were higher as investors braced for another round of Fed talk after data lifted hopes for a cut in interest rates this year.

Wall Street ended higher yesterday with the Dow in the green for the ninth straight session, leaving the index on course for a fourth week of gains. The S&P 500, which closed at a one-month high, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq are both on track for their third straight winning week.

Weekly jobless claims yesterday came in at their highest level since August, corroborating evidence in last week's employment report that the US labour market may finally be cooling.

The labor market is key to the debate about when the Fed can start cutting interest rates and whether it will be able to engineer a soft landing - taming inflation without triggering a recession.

But caution remains. Yesterday San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said there was "considerable" uncertainty about where US inflation would go in coming months while Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic told Reuters today the Fed probably remained on track to cut rates this year but warned the timing and extent was uncertain with further declines in inflation coming only slowly.

Policymakers speaking today include Governor Michelle Bowman, Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari, Dallas President Lorie Logan and Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr.

On the stocks front, US depository shares in Taiwanese chip maker TSMC were 3% higher in premarket trade after it said its revenue in April jumped 60% from a year ago. The news gave a lift to US chip makers Nvidia, AMD and Micron Technology which were all higher. Novavax surged 121% after French pharmaceutical group Sanofi said it had entered an agreement to commercialise its Covid-19 vaccine.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 116.00 points, or 0.29%, S&P 500 futures were up 19.25 points, or 0.37%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 82.25 points, or 0.45%, higher.

AAA-Sje

(RADIOCOR) 10-05-24 13:53:25 (0401) 5 NNNN