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* Weekly unemployment insurance claims decrease
* All eyes on Biden’s press conference later in the day
* Nike skidded the repercussions on social media due to Xinjiang’s statement
* Futures discount: Dow 0.45%, S&P 0.44%, Nasdaq 0.55% (add comment; update prices)
March 25 (Reuters) – The main Wall Street indices were scheduled to open lower on Thursday, pulled down by technology stocks and banks, while data showed that unemployment claims fell last week, while the labor market continued to emerge from the coronavirus-induced recession.
The Department of Labor’s weekly unemployment insurance claims report, the most timely indicator of economic health, showed that the state’s initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 684,000 in the week ended March 20, from 781,000 the previous week.
“Most investors have assumed that we will return to a much more normal economy after this summer,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
“They are assuming that today’s numbers are not that significant if you consider that the economy could reopen completely by the end of the year.”
The high-tech Nasdaq Composite fell this month, as bullish economic projections increased demand for undervalued stocks, including energy, mining and industrial companies, but raised fears of higher inflation and possible tax hikes.
In testimony to Congress this week, Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell expressed optimism about a strong US economic recovery, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that future tax increases will be needed to pay for public investments.
President Joe Biden is expected to set a new goal for US vaccinations against COVID-19 at his first formal press conference at the White House, beginning at 1:15 pm ET (1715 GMT). Next week, he is also due to unveil a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan in Pittsburgh.
“It is a story of two different markets at this point and it depends on what the market wants to focus on,” said Faron Daugs, founder and CEO of Harrison Wallace Financial Group.
“He wants to focus on stimulating, increasing vaccination and reopening savings or potential taxes, potentially increasing regulation in certain sectors, extremely high spending and inflation.”
Shares of economically sensitive banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America gave up initial gains to fall between 0.3% and 0.7% in the pre-market.
The heavy stocks of technology Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc fell between 0.8% and 2.7% before the testimony of their chief executives before Congress about extremism and misinformation in their services.
At 8:50 am ET, Dow e-minis fell 144 points, or 0.45%, S&P 500 e-minis fell 17 points, or 0.44%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis fell 70.25 points, or 0, 55%.
Nike Inc shares fell 5.7% as the sporting goods giant faced a negative reaction from Chinese social media because of its comments on reports of forced labor in Xinjiang.
The US listed shares of Baidu Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.Com Inc were subjugated after the US securities regulator adopted measures that would expel foreign companies from stock exchanges if they did not meet US audit standards. . (Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)