By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - U.S. stock futures moved lower in early APAC trades on Monday, as major benchmark indices hold near record highs after a strong corporate earnings season boosted investor appetite, while market participants continued to rotate into growth-related stocks as the coronavirus Delta variant continues to hinder economic activity.
During Friday’s session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 74.73 points or 0.21% to 35369.1, the S&P 500 closed just 0.03% lower at 4535.42 and the NASDAQ Composite added 32.34 points or 0.21% to 15363.52.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Nasdaq posted a weekly advance of 1.6%.
On the macro front, nonfarm payrolls data from the Labor Department released on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 235k jobs in August, well below forecasts of 750k, while the unemployment rate dropped to a new pandemic low of 5.2% from 5.4% in the previous period and wage growth lifted.
The weaker than expected report may raise questions about whether the Federal Reserve could delay its proposed asset tapering plan as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has signaled that the central bank would use employment data as a key factor in the tapering discussions.
Later in the week, the U.S. August producer price index data could provide some clues on how inflation is shaping up after July showed the largest annual increase in over a decade.