Wall Street is set to open slightly higher on Thursday morning, as Jerome Powell's latest comments reinforced the prospect of further rate cuts on the eve of employment figures.

Half an hour before the opening, futures on the main New York indices were up between 0.5% and 0.8%, heralding a green start to the session.

Caution could, however, limit risk-taking as we await the US employment figures for March, due out tomorrow.

The consensus is for a sharp slowdown in job creation to 200,000, compared with 275,000 in February.

This morning, the market took note of a rise in jobless claims, to 221,000 last week, compared with 212,000 the previous week, a sign of a slight easing in the labor market.

The ADP survey of private-sector job creation, published yesterday, had, on the contrary, shown that tensions on the job market were struggling to ease.

To make up their minds, investors will be closely watching tomorrow's official report from the Labor Department, which could well influence the Federal Reserve's next decisions.

Following yesterday's reassuring remarks by the Fed Chairman, investors are expecting with a probability of almost 62% that the cost of credit will fall for the first time in June, according to the CME Fedwatch barometer.

Speaking on Wednesday at Stanford University (California), the central banker confirmed that 'if the economy continues to evolve broadly as we expect, most FOMC members believe it will probably be appropriate to begin lowering policy rates at some point this year'.

Following these statements, the yield on 10-year US Treasuries eased slightly before rising again, above 4.37%, still close to a four-month peak.

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