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Futures down: Dow 0.12%, S&P 500 0.21%, Nasdaq 0.25%
Cisco Systems gains after annual revenue forecast hike
JD.com rises as quarterly revenue beats estimates
Updates with quote, prices
By Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal
Nov 13 (Reuters) - Wall Street futures were subdued on Thursday as investors awaited indications on the U.S. economy and the monetary policy path after President Donald Trump signed a bill ending the longest government shutdown in the country's history.
Markets will closely monitor the flow of official data, as its prolonged absence left both the Federal Reserve and traders guessing on the economic health and reliant on alternative sources.
Still, some data gaps are likely to be permanent, with the White Housing saying employment and Consumer Price Indexes reports for October might never be released.
Philip Marey, senior U.S. strategist at Rabobank, said the commencing of the shutdown in October, and inadequate time in November could compromise data collection quality, potentially making both reports unreliable.
"The FOMC will have to rely on other data more than they are used to and on their prior beliefs. If the latter are reflected in the bimodal September dot plot, we could be looking at a big fight between hawks and doves in December."
At 07:06 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were down 60 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 14.25 points, or 0.21% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 64.5 points, or 0.25%.
Data from private firms in recent weeks have raised concerns about a weakening U.S. job market.
U.S. employers shed more than 11,000 jobs a week through late October, according to payroll processor ADP. Separate data from Indeed Hiring Lab showed retail-related job postings dropped 16% in October compared to last year.
Traders are currently pricing in an about 54% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut in December, lower than last week's 70%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Several Fed speakers, including voting regional presidents, have expressed scepticism over another interest rate cut in December, prompting investors to scale back bets.
A bright spot, Cisco Systems' CSCO.O shares rose 7.1% in premarket trading after the company raised full-year profit and revenue forecasts betting on demand for its networking equipment amid a data center expansion fueled by artificial intelligence.
Technology and AI names have come under pressure lately, with the Nasdaq .IXIC falling in the past two sessions, as investors rotated out of pricey tech stocks into traditionally defensive areas such as healthcare and consumer staples.
The Dow .DJI has benefited from the rotation, notching back-to-back record highs after lagging the S&P and the Nasdaq this year.
Nvidia NVDA.O was down 0.8% before the bell, while Alphabet GOOGL.O and Microsoft MSFT.O were off 0.6% and 0.3% respectively.
AI bellwether Nvidia's earnings next week could further test the optimism around the technology which has driven markets to record highs this year, but come under more scrutiny in recent weeks.
Walt Disney DIS.N was down 3.4%. The media giant said it would boost its dividend by 50% and double its share buyback plan for fiscal 2026.
JD.com JD.O shares gained 1.1% as the e-commerce giant topped market estimates for quarterly revenue.
Among other moves, shares of memory chipmaker Micron Technology MU.N fell 0.7% after results from Japan's Kioxia Holdings.
Memory device makers Western Digital WDC.O and Sandisk SNDK.O dropped 3.5% each.
(Reporting by Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; editing by Maju Samuel)
((Twesha.Dikshit@thomsonreuters.com;))
