Stocks set for muted open
Wall Street futures were in the red before the opening bell Tuesday, as traders returned from the Independence Day holiday long weekend.
By 5:30 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow dropped 10 points, or 0.03% to 34,667. S&P 500 futures and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.
A report released by the U.S. Labor Department on Friday showed that the economy added 850,000 jobs in June, a figure that was above economists’ estimates and also higher than the 559,000 gain in May.
However, the rate of unemployment jumped slightly to 5.9% from 5.8% in the previous month. Economists expected the labor market to have gained 700,000 jobs in June, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.7%.
Didi plummets as China cracks down
Meanwhile, Didi (NYSE: DIDI) shares slumped ahead of the opening bell Tuesday after the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered app stores including those operated by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to pull down the ride-hailing app, claiming it was in “serious violations of laws and regulations.”
The move, announced over the weekend, comes barely a week after Didi raised nearly $7 billion after listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
CAC said the company had committed serious violations in the usage and collection of personal information and asked apps stores to remove it. But there is no information on what exactly the inquiry focuses on, where or when the said violations happened or whether Didi will be fined.
As of this writing, Didi stock was marked 22.22% lower to $12.08 per share in the pre-market trading session.
Crude surges as OPEC+ calls off supply talks
In energy markets, crude futures soared early Tuesday after OPEC+ members abandoned oil production talks yesterday after clashing last week when the United Arab Emirates objected a proposal to extend production curbs by eight months.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia and Mexico, called off the talks with no new date set for a meeting.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.22, or 1.62% to $76.38 per barrel at 5:30 a.m. ET. Global Brent crude futures were at $77.36, up 20 cents, or 26% per barrel.
OPEC+ members have only slowly added back production, which they aggressively sidelined during the oil crash of 2020. However, demand for oil is outpacing supply and pushing prices higher as businesses reopen and people get back to a more normal life.
