US pre-open: Futures slip ahead of key payrolls release

16th Dec 2025 10:07

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Tuesday as market participants awaited November's all-important non-farm payrolls report.

As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones futures were 0.14%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.21% and 0.37% weaker, respectively.

The Dow closed 41.49 points lower on Monday, extending losses recorded in the previous session.

Tuesday's primary focus will be on both October and November's non-farm payrolls at 1330 GMT, with economists expecting to see a gain of just 50,000 last month, sharply lower than the 119,000 jobs added in September. Consensus forecasts also have the unemployment rate edging up to 4.5% from 4.4% previously.

Rostro's Joshua Mahony said: "Today sees the release of the belated jobs data out of the US, with traders having to digest payrolls figures from both October and November. Coming hot off the heels of last week's FOMC interest rate cut there are question marks over the impact today's data will make on the next meeting. Notably, in the absence of the headline jobs data, we have seen markets follow the ADP report which has shown precious few reasons to be optimistic. Forecasts for today's payrolls data highlights a continuation of the stuttering jobs market, with figures around 25-50k expected.

"Notably, while the payrolls data has highlighted a stuttering hiring environment, the unemployment rate does highlight the fact that once people obtain a job they often manage to keep it. While we have seen the odd jump in the Challenger job cuts figure, much of the data seen since Trump entered the White House have been relatively normal by historical standards. Whether today's release is enough to push the narrative around a need to swiftly ease again remains to be seen."

Elsewhere on the macro front, ADP employment change figures was slated for release at 1315 GMT, while October retail sales numbers will be published at 1330 GMT, a preliminary reading of December's S&P Global manufacturing and services PMIs will follow at 1445 GMT, and September business inventories data will be on deck at 1500 GMT.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Tuesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com