(CercleFinance.com) – Wall Street should start the week on a weak note Monday morning, in a cautious market ahead of the publication of the highly anticipated employment figures for the month of November.
Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the main New York indices fell from 0.4% to 0.7%, announcing an opening in the red.
Investors could be tempted to take their profits following a sequence of increases which has allowed the indices to string together five consecutive weeks of progress.
After recovering more than 12% since its low on October 27, the S&P 500 index is now only 5% from its all-time high reached at the start of 2022.
December is traditionally a good month for the stock markets, but it will start with a certain nervousness as we approach the job creation figures for the month of November, expected on Friday.
After the better than expected indicators published in recent weeks, which reinforced the scenario of a ‘soft landing’, this statistic promises to be decisive for the evolution of the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
As in previous months, investors are hoping for a middling figure that would give the Fed additional arguments to reduce its rates.
Economists forecast an average of 200,000 job creations in November, after the 150,000 announced for October which was the second lowest total in almost three years.
Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, declared on Friday that it was premature to talk about a rate cut and assured that an increase remained on the table, but the markets do not hear it that way.
Friday’s statistics will be preceded on Tuesday by the ISM of services then on Wednesday by the ADP survey on job creations in the private sector while awaiting the Michigan consumer confidence index on Friday.
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