Stock Futures Mixed Ahead of Manufacturing Data

The big macroeconomic event of the week will be Friday’s U.S. job report. However, before then there will be eyes on ISM purchasing managers’ data for August on the manufacturing sector on Tuesday for more clues as to the depth of any economic slowdown.

U.S. stock futures pointed to losses at the market open on Tuesday, as trading resumes after the Labor Day holiday. Investors will be gauging economic data releases in the shortened week ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision on Sept. 18.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 38 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were rising less than 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures were flat.

The big macroeconomic event of the week will be Friday’s U.S. job report. However, before then there will be eyes on ISM purchasing managers’ data for August on the manufacturing sector on Tuesday for more clues as to the depth of any economic slowdown.

“The slack in the manufacturing sector has been priced in for a while, and we’ll probably need to see a rather soft number to trigger recession alarms and drive the dollar materially lower. The consensus is looking at a modest improvement in August, from 46.8 to 47.5,” wrote ING analyst Francesco Pesole in a research note.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at 3.914% early on Tuesday, broadly flat from the previous week.

The Nikkei Stock Average ended flat, with the benchmark index falling 14.56 points to 38686.31, as technology shares erased early gains.

Tokyo Electron shed 1.5% and Advantest declined 2.3%. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield rose 1.5 basis points to 0.920%, as bonds were sold further on weak results of the Finance Ministry’s 10-year JGB auction.

USD/JPY was around 146.35, compared with 146.80 at the start of Asia trading.