US stock futures traded mixed on Thursday as investors waited for the release of the June jobs report to help set expectations for the next move in interest rates.

Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) dropped 0.3%, eyeing further losses to build on Wednesday's chip sector-led slide. But Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) ticked up 0.2%, while those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) were broadly flat.

Pressure on techs shows no sign of alleviating Thursday, after a sell-off in South Korean chipmakers helped drive a 7.9% plunge for the Kospi (^KS11) stock benchmark. Shares in memory makers SK Hynix (000660.KS) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS, SSNLF), which each recently laid out a massive AI investment, sank over 14% and 9%, respectively.

Markets are muted as Wall Street weighs comments on the state of inflation from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh and signs that US-Iran talks may be starting to emerge from another rough patch. Oil prices fell after mediator Qatar said this week's discussions were positive, despite the lack of a breakthrough.

Now the spotlight is on the monthly jobs report after Warsh urged Wall Street to look to data to help map out the path of interest rates, rather than looking to the Fed for forward guidance.

The nonfarm-payrolls release at 8:30 a.m. ET is expected to show the the economy added 115,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate stayed flat at 4.3%. After a mixed set of data this week, any sign of resilience in the labor market may raise expectations for a rate hike this year.