Wall St opens higher as prospects of September rate cut grow

By Shashwat Chauhan and Johann M Cherian

(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes eyed a higher open on Thursday, as investors were more hopeful the Federal Reserve would kick off its interst rate cut cycle next month, while awaiting policymakers’ commentary at Jackson Hole this week.

Expectations of a rate cut got a boost after minutes from the U.S. central bank’s latest meeting showed on Wednesday a “vast majority” of officials said such an action was likely.

The much-awaited Jackson Hole Economic Symposium kicks off on Thursday. Fed chair Powell is slated to deliver his remarks on the second day of the event.

Money markets currently see a nearly 70% chance of an at least 25-basis-point (bps) cut in September, as per the CME FedWatch Tool, and about 100 bps of easing by December, according to LSEG data.

Wall Street’s main indexes closed slightly higher in the previous session, with the notching its ninth session of gains out of 10, after data showed U.S. employers added far fewer jobs than originally reported in the year through March.

Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid, one of the U.S. central bank’s more hawkish policymakers, said he was taking a closer look at the dynamics behind the rise in the unemployment rate and would let data guide him on whether to support a rate cut next month.

Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose in the latest week, but the level still suggested easing labor market conditions.

“The labor market is cooling off, but the real question is, to what extent? We should (wait) for the unemployment numbers for August and then see if the Fed is going to respond in a more forceful way,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.

Preliminary estimates of August U.S. business activity are due at 9:45 a.m. ET.

At 08:45 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 16 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 8 points, or 0.14% and E-minis were up 49.25 points, or 0.25%.

Among individual stocks, data cloud analytics firm Snowflake (NYSE:) raised its forecast for full-year product revenue. Still, Snowflake’s shares were down 9.9% in premarket trading, with analysts attributing the drop to the company not pairing the climb in revenue projections with a rise in margin forecast.

Paramount Global gained 1.6% after a source told Reuters that veteran media executive Edgar Bronfman has sweetened his bid to take over the company, offering $6 billion for its controlling shareholder National Amusements and a minority stake in Paramount.

Shares of Charles Schwab (NYSE:) were down 3.2% after Canada’s TD Bank Group said it would sell part of its stake in the brokerage firm.

Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:) added 1.6% after raising its annual revenue forecast, driven by strong demand for its AI-powered collaboration tools deployed in hybrid work models, while Advanced Auto Parts slid 20.9% after trimming its annual profit forecast.