S&P 500 Futures: Mildly offered below 4,400 as Fed tapering concerns battle China news

S&P 500 Futures remain on the back for the second consecutive day, down 0.15% intraday around 4,375 during early Monday.

The risk barometer portrays the market’s indecision amid mixed clues concerning the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) next moves and the China-linked headlines amid a quiet Asian session.

Although the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) questioned Fed tapering concerns on Friday, welcome prints of September’s Unemployment Rate and Average Hourly Earnings challenged equity bulls. That said, NFP dropped to 194K versus 500K expected but the prior reading got an upward revision to 366K. On the same line, the Unemployment Rate dropped to 4.8%, versus 5.1% expected and 5.2% prior, soothing the pains, whereas Average Hourly Earnings also jumped past 0.4% expected and revised down previous readouts of 0.4% to 0.6%.

On a different page, the fresh Sino-American tussles over phase one deal commitments challenge the market sentiment. Furthermore, Hong Kong and Taiwan face challenges from China and add to the risk-off mood. It's worth observing that China's efforts to defend the financial markets from the Evergrande-led woes seem to fail of late, which in turn keeps the traders on the edge.

Alternatively, off in the US joins the recently improving covid conditions in the West, not to forget US debt ceiling extension and hopes for more stimulus, to back the bulls.

Even so, US Columbus Day will restrict market moves as bond trading is off while the equities may wobble amid a lighter calendar at home.

That being said, Wednesday becomes the week’s crucial day as the US releases monthly inflation data together with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Minutes for the latest monetary policy meeting. Given the latest challenges to the Fed tapering, these catalysts will be crucial for the near-term market direction.