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* Futures off: Dow 0.24%, S&P 500 0.25%, Nasdaq 0.24%
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dipped on Monday
as investors braced for U.S.-China trade talks later in the
week, after a rollercoaster week that sparked fears of a
recession in the world's largest economy.
Chinese officials signaled they were increasingly reluctant
to agree to a broad trade deal pursued by U.S. President Donald
Trump, Bloomberg reported over the weekend. Wall Street logged a choppy start to the month as concerns
fueled by a contraction in U.S. factory activity and
weaker-than-expected services sector data were countered by
rising bets of a third interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Traders see a 76.4% chance of the Fed cutting rates by 25
basis points at its policy meeting later this month, up from
about 40% a week ago, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
After losing about 3% earlier in the week, the S&P 500 and
Dow Jones indexes gained more than 1% on Friday after a report
showed nonfarm payrolls increasing by 136,000 last month, with
the unemployment rate dropping to a 50-year low. Investors will now turn to the upcoming third-quarter
earnings season to judge the effect of the trade war on
Corporate America.
Analysts are pointing to the lowest quarterly profit
performance since 2016, with S&P 500 earnings falling 2.7% from
a year ago, based on IBES data from Refinitiv.
At 7:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 63 points,
or 0.24%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 7.25 points, or
0.25% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 19 points, or
0.24%.
Among stocks, General Electric Co GE.N shares rose 1.1%
premarket after the industrial conglomerate said it was freezing
the pension plan for about 20,000 U.S. employees with salaried
benefits, as it looks to cut its huge debt pile.
Carnival Corp CCL.N dipped 0.6% after HSBC downgraded the
cruise operator's shares to "hold" and said the company's share
buyback plan could be suspended.
Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N rose
2.8% as Citigroup upgraded its shares to "buy".