US pre-open: Stocks seen lower after China trade data, ahead of payrolls
US stocks looked set to drop at the open on Friday as investors eyed the release of the latest non-farm payrolls report, with weak Chinese trade data likely to dent the mood.
At 1240 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were down 0.4%, while Nasdaq futures were 0.5% lower.
Sentiment was set to take a hit after data released overnight showed that dollar-denominated exports in China tumbled 20.7% in February from a year ago as the trade war with the US took its toll, missing expectations for a 4.8% drop and compared to a 9.1% increase in January.
Dollar-denominated imports were down 5.2% from a year ago, versus expectations for a 1.4% decline and a 1.5% year-on-year fall in January.
James Hughes, chief market analyst at Axi Trader, said: "Wall Street stumbled yesterday in the wake of the ECB’s monetary policy announcement. Rather than reassuring investors, this seems to have reiterated the point about just how bad the global economic slowdown is, something that was further underlined by shock news of a 20% decline in Chinese exports for February. As a result, index futures are pointing to a lower start on Friday, although non-farm payrolls and average wage inflation is still to come before the opening bell.
"In light of the recent sell-off, weak wages growth may be sufficient to convince the market that the fed is ready to call time on quantitative tightening. This should in turn have the ability to bolster the inflation print without resorting to talk of a rate hike and any suggestion that cheap money is coming back into circulation also has the potential to lend some support to stocks."
The non-farm payrolls report and unemployment rate are due at 1330 GMT, along with earnings.
Payrolls are expected to show that 180,000 jobs were added in February, compared to 304,000 the month before.
The unemployment rate is expected to tick down to 3.9% from 4%. Average earnings on a yearly basis are forecast to improve to 3.3% from 3.2%, while on monthly basis, the reading is tipped to be 0.3%, up from 0.1%.
Investors will also be mulling a report that the US and China are yet to set a date for a summit on trade.
Terry Branstad, the US envoy to Beijing, said in a Wall Street Journal interview that a date hasn’t been finalised for meeting between Trump and China's Xi Jinping. He also said that preparations for such a meeting are not underway yet.