By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - U.S. stock futures moved lower in early APAC trade on Thursday, after the NASDAQ Composite touched a fresh record close in the previous session, with market participants favouring technology-related stocks after a weaker than expected ADP employment report supported bets for dovish monetary policy.
In the regular trading session on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.20 points, or 0.14%, to 35312.54. The S&P 500 added 1.41 points, or 0.03% to 4524.1. The Nasdaq Composite gained 50.15 points or 0.33% to a fresh record close of 15309.38.
Among stocks, technology names finished the regular session higher, with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) lifting 0.45%, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) adding 0.7% and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) up 0.24%. Meantime, Okta Inc (NASDAQ:OKTA) dipped 2.55% in after-hours trade despite the company reporting strong earnings results, while ChargePoint Holdings Inc (NYSE:CHPT) surged 13.28% in extended deals after reporting greater than expected revenues.
In local data, the ADP (NASDAQ:ADP)'s nonfarm employment change report showed that U.S. companies added just 374k jobs in August, well below market expectations of 600k as the surging Delta variant coincided with cutbacks in hiring.
Later this week, market participants are expecting the weekly initial jobless claims report Thursday and the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, which could provide clues on Federal Reserve policy.