US STOCKS-Futures muted ahead of jobless claims as economic recovery slows

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* Futures: Dow up 0.18%, S&P adds 0.13%, Nasdaq off 0.11%

By Sagarika Jaisinghani
Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were subdued on
Thursday as investors braced for another staggering weekly
jobless claims figure, the latest evidence of a slowing economic
recovery from a pandemic-led recession.
The Labor Department's report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is
likely to show 840,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits
in the week ended Sept. 19. Although down slightly from 860,000
in the previous week, it would still signal a cooling in the
labor market's rebound. Wall Street's main indexes have stumbled this month, with
the S&P 500 .SPX hovering just above correction territory on
waning hopes of more fiscal stimulus, signs of choppy economic
growth and a sell-off in heavyweight technology-related names.
The Nasdaq .IXIC entered correction territory earlier this
month, but the blue-chip Dow .DJI has outperformed its peers
on demand for value-linked stocks .IVX such as industrials
.SPLRCI .
At 6:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 47 points, or
0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 4.25 points, or 0.13%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 11.75 points, or 0.11%
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Netflix Inc
NFLX.O and Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , which have
led a Wall Street rally since April, edged lower in premarket
trading.
A 4% slide put Tesla Inc TSLA.O on course for its third
straight day of declines following an underwhelming "Battery
Day" presentation by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.
Big banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N , Wells
Fargo & Co WFC.N and JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N gained
between 0.8% and 1.6%. US/
U.S.-listed shares of Tencent (HK:0700) Music Entertainment Group
TME.N rose 1.5% as Jefferies forecast encouraging revenue
growth in the third quarter and solid momentum in subscription
for the China-based music streaming company. Nikola Corp NKLA.O , which is set for one of its biggest
weekly declines ever, tumbled another 7.8% as Wedbush downgraded
the stock to "underperform".