The New York Stock Exchange is set to start Friday morning in the red, penalized both by weak employment figures and disappointing results from several technology giants, led by Amazon.

Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the main New York indices are down between 1% and 2%, heralding a difficult start to the session.

Wall Street has been generally bearish for the past two weeks, as the various economic indicators published around the world and corporate earnings have so far given investors little cause for optimism.

This trend was once again confirmed on Friday.

In terms of statistics, the US economy generated just 114,000 non-farm jobs in July, according to the Labor Department, well below market expectations of 170,000.

In the eyes of investors, these figures are likely to reinforce the theory of a 50 basis point cut in Fed interest rates at the end of next month's meeting, with an estimated 70% probability.

But this worse-than-expected employment report also reawakened fears of a "hard landing" for growth, a prospect that investors no longer really believed in, but which has been reinforced by the less reassuring indicators unveiled in recent years.

The trend is also weighed down by the earnings releases of the major technology groups, which are no longer acting as catalysts as usual.

As the US economy begins to show signs of slowing, investors are expecting solid quarterly results to justify the high valuations of tech stocks, but these are struggling to materialize.

Apple, the world's largest capitalization, dropped more than 1% in pre-market trading after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and an encouraging outlook last night.

Amazon was even more heavily penalized, falling 7% in pre-opening trading on the heels of a weaker-than-expected quarterly publication, particularly in its online retail activities.

The financial statements of oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil also disappointed this morning, leading their shares to drop by 1.7% and 0.9% respectively in electronic trading.

The price of US light crude fell by around 0.8% below $75, as fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East were more than offset by concerns over weak demand.

On the bond market, Treasuries yields fell to two-week lows, at 1.7752% for 10-year paper.

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