U.S. stocks point to muted open; Facebook drops 6%

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange June 19, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a muted open on Thursday morning, amid ongoing uncertainty ahead of next week’s U.S. presidential election.

The blue-chip Dow futures tacked on 11 points, or 0.06%, by 6:53AM ET (10:53GMT), the S&P 500 futures inched down 1 point, or 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futuresslumped 13 points, or 0.27%.

The S&P 500 ended lower on Wednesday for a seventh straight session, its longest such streak in five years, as the Federal Reserve signaled it could hike interest rates in December and the uncertain U.S. election continued to cloud the market’s outlook.

Besides the election, traders are watching reports on jobless claims, productivity and costsall due at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) Thursday. ISM non-manufacturing and factory orders are scheduled at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).

Investors were also looking ahead to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for October, for fresh indications that the economy is on a strong enough footing to handle an interest rate hike this year.

Traders were pricing in around a 60% chance of a rate hike next month, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.

Among active pre-market movers, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares slumped 6% as the world’s largest online social media network warned that revenue growth would slow this quarter, offsetting strong earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates.

Wearable fitness device maker Fitbit saw shares sink 30% after revenue forecast for the key-holiday shopping quarter fell well below of analysts’ estimates, hurt by soft demand and production issues related to its new Flex 2 wristband.

On the earnings front, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), HollyFrontier and Avon report ahead of the bell. After the close, reports are expected from Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), Las Vegas Sands, Kraft Heinz, GoPro, El Pollo Loco and Genworth.

Elsewhere, European and U.K. stock markets were mostly higher on Thursday, as investors focused on the Bank of England’s latest rate decision and fresh corporate earnings.

Earlier, Asian shares were mixed as the possibility that Republican candidate Donald Trump might be voted in as U.S. president kept traders on edge.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.15% at 97.24 early Thursday, after falling to 97.08 earlier, the weakest level since October 11.

The pound rallied more than 1% after the U.K. high court ruled that Prime Minister Theresa May cannot start the process of exiting the European Union without a parliamentary vote.

Oil futures rebounded on Thursday, after plunging nearly 3% to five-week lows in the prior session after data showed that crude supplies in the U.S. rose by the most since records began last week.

Meanwhile, gold prices fell back below the $1,300-level as the Federal Reserve signaled it could hike interest rates in December.

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