US pre-open: Stocks set for slightly higher start

Equity futures on Wall Street are pointing mostly higher as investors return after the Labor Day weekend.

As of 1305 BST, the Dow Jones mini contract was higher by 38.0 points at 35,391.0, alongside a 2.75 point gain on that for the S&P 500 to 4,537.25.

The Nasdaq-100 mini meanwhile was flat at 15,651.50.

In parallel, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were down by 1.5% to $67.93 a barrel on NYMEX while the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was five basis points higher at 1.37%.

Yet analysts were cautious, despite the release overnight of stronger-than-expected readings on Chinese exports and imports in August.

For his part, Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, Asia Pacific, at Oanda, was keen to see whether the benign reaction to last Friday's softer than anticipated non-farm payrolls report held.

"I was pretty surprised and more than a little suspicious of the muted reaction across asset classes after the terrible Non-Farm Payrolls," he said.

"I am more than a little suspicious that many market participants were already out of the door for the long weekend. Thus, with everybody back at their desks in the US today and tomorrow, the price action in New York this evening may give us a more accurate representation of the data's impact."

Taking a similar tack, equity strategists at Morgan Stanley saw fit to downgrade their stance for US stocks to 'underweight' due to the "outsized" risks to growth, policy and the legislative agenda over the next two months.

All in all however, they believed that there was too much growth pessimism about.

In corporate news, Thoughtworks set the terms of its initial public offering valuing the firm at $6.1bn.

Sportrader Group AG announced its intention to sell 19m shares at between $25-28 each as part of its flotation on the Nasdaq.

On the merger and acquisitions front, Columbia Property Trust announced that it was to be acquired by PIMCO managed funds in a transaction worth $3.9bn.

In parallel, State Street unveiled its plans to buy Brown Brothers Harriman’s investor services business for $3.5bn.

No major economic reports were scheduled for release on Tuesday.