Aerial sunrise view of Osaka city in Japan
Frank Lee | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were set to open mixed Thursday, after Wall Street gained on the latest jobs data from ADP, which strengthened investors’ conviction that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.
Payroll processor ADP reported that private companies cut 32,000 workers in November, a sharp step down from October’s gain of 47,000 positions, and well below the 40,000 increase expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.
The ADP report is the last jobs picture the Federal Reserve gets before it meets Dec. 9-10. Markets are pricing in an 89% chance of a cut, significantly higher than rate-cut bets just a couple of weeks ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Over in Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was set to open little changed, with its futures contract in Chicago trading at 49,880, and its counterpart in Osaka at 49,910, against the index’s Wednesday close of 49,864.68.
Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 rose 0.21% in early trading.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index pointed to a higher open, trading at 25,829, against the index’s previous close of 25,760.73.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 408.44 points, or 0.86%, to finish at 47,882.90. The S&P 500 traded up 0.30% to end the day at 6,849.72, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.17% to settle at 23,454.09.
Stocks with exposure to the artificial intelligence trade were the biggest drag on U.S. key benchmarks Wednesday stateside, after The Information reported Microsoft was cutting software sales quotas tied to artificial intelligence.
Other major tech names, including Nvidia and Broadcom, pulled the broad-based S&P 500 lower.
Microsoft refuted the claims in the report, which led the stock to recover slightly in after-hours trading.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.