Stock futures slip slightly to start the week as traders look ahead to more economic data

U.S. stock futures fell Monday as investors awaited more economic data ahead of the Federal Reserve’s December policy meeting later this month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dipped by 110 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

Wall Street is coming off its second positive week in a row, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq advancing 1.1% and 2.1%, respectively. The Dow advanced 0.2% last week.

Those moves came after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that smaller interest rate hikes could start in December. The Fed is slated to meet Dec. 13-14 and is expected to raise rates by 50 basis points, or 0.5 percentage points. On Friday, stronger-than-expected jobs report initially rattled markets, but traders later shook it off.

“One of the things we’re concerned about is that even if inflation heads lower from here, the cost of getting from, say, a 4% rate of inflation to 2% becomes increasingly high. It would likely come with some significant shakeout amongst businesses and the labor market,” Baird’s Nicholas Bohnsack said in a Friday note.

“Ultimately, we think they’ll slow the pace at which they’re raising rates and then take a long time to observe the landscape and the impact that may have,” Bohnsack added.

On the economic front, investors are expecting the November ISM services data at 10 a.m. ET on Monday. Economists polled by the Dow Jones are expecting a reading of 53.7.