US STOCKS-Wall Street set to open lower after June jobs data

Wall Street's main indexes were set to open lower on Friday after a strong rebound in U.S. job growth in June dashed hopes of an aggressive interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve this month. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 224,000 jobs last month, the most in five months, the Labor Department data showed. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising 160,000 jobs in June.

The closely watched employment report led investors to scale back bets of a 50 basis point rate cut by the central bank at its policy meeting on July 30-31. However, moderating wage growth and mounting evidence that the economy was slowing sharply could still encourage the Fed to cut interest rates by a quarter point.

"It is still more likely than not that the Fed will cut rates but the odds have decreased somewhat," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida. "The 50 basis point cut should be priced out completely at this point."

Wall Street's main indexes have rallied to record levels on hopes of a looser monetary policy from the Fed and other major central banks in the wake of a slowdown in global growth. At 8:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 107 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 15.5 points, or 0.52% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 58 points, or 0.74%.

Trading volumes are likely to be thin at the end of holiday-shortened week as markets were shut on Thursday for Independence Day holiday. Chipmakers were hit by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's weak second-quarter forecast, as a supply glut and rising tariffs hit global demand for electronics.

Qualcomm Inc slipped 3.0% in premarket trade, with Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc also falling.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)