U.S. stocks: Futures drop on Hong Kong unrest, jobs data worries

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MADRID (MarketWatch) - U.S. stock futures were under pressure on Monday, on unrest in Hong Kong, an even-stronger dollar gains and expectations for strong jobs data later in the week.

Futures traded choppy, with those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 76 points, or 0.5%, to 16,954, while those for the S&P 500 eased 8.8 points, or 0.5% to 1,967.10. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index dropped 19.25 points, or 0.5%, to 4,026.50.

Violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong over the weekend and on Monday forced some banks and businesses to close and hammered the Hang Seng Index 1.9% lower. Meanwhile, the dollar hit its highest level in over six years on the view that the U.S. central bank and its global peers are headed in different directions on monetary policy.

Wouter Sturkenboom, London-based investment strategist at Russell Investment, said the futures pullback is a bit bigger than he would have expected on the newsflow, and he expects it will likely reverse throughout the course of the day. U.S. stocks staged a rally on Friday, but closed the week in the red due to a big rout on Thursday. Read: Investors likely to focus on jobs data

The two big events this week: 'For us, this week is about two things: ECB [European Central Bank] policy and nonfarm payrolls,' said Sturkenboom, referring to Thursday's ECB meeting and Friday's payrolls. He said traders are expecting a robust payrolls growth number of around 215,000. 'Anything that upsets that expectation will cause volatility, but that volatility could go either way.' Read: Big rebound seen for U.S. jobs growth

In the run-up to jobs data, the week will be pretty full of other numbers. Personal income and consumer-spending data for August will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday. Pending home sales for August are out at 10 a.m.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will be interviewed on CNBC at 8 a.m. Eastern, then will give a speech on current economic conditions to the National Association for Business Economics meeting in Chicago at 9 a.m. Evans will be a voting member of the Fed policy committee in 2015.

Dollar soars, Hong Kong slumps: Sturkenboom said this will also be a big week for the dollar which also reached a 22-month high against the euro 'Both the ECB and NFP report will directly impact this trend and we wouldn't be surprised if we get another strong U.S. dollar week,' he said.

While Hong Kong stumbled, the rest of Asia finished mixed. Europe stocks drifted south with miners under pressure in London, partly due to China-growth worries.

Stocks to watch: European Union regulators are expected to publish a report as soon as Monday showing tax practices granted to Apple Inc. and Fiat SpA violated EU law, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.

Late Friday, Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer said the company is reviewing a letter from activist investor Starboard Value, urging it to combine with AOL Inc.

Options contracts on shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are expected to come available on Monday.

Cal-Main Foods Inc. is due to report results ahead of the market's open.

Janus Capital Group Inc. could stay active after Pimco founder Bill Gross's decision to join the firm. Pacific Investment Management Co. suffered around $10 billion in withdrawals following Gross's exit Friday.

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