US STOCKS-Wall St futures inch lower as investors brace for key jobs report

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Accenture (ACN) rises as MS upgrades to "overweight"

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B. Riley jumps after reporting Q2 profit vs year-ago loss

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Futures off: Dow 0.01%, S&P 500 0.05%, Nasdaq 0.13%

(Updates prices throughout, adds Accenture (ACN) share move)

By Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan

Dec 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower on Tuesday as caution set in ahead of a highly anticipated jobs report that could offer insight into the health of the economy and the potential path for interest rates next year.

A recent historic government shutdown left investors and the Federal Reserve starved of official data and increasingly reliant on secondary indicators that offered a mixed picture on the health of the labor market.

However, policymakers broadly acknowledged that the jobs market was weakening when the central bank lowered interest rates last week.

The Labor Department is scheduled to release its reports at 8:30 a.m. ET and economists expect job growth to have rebounded in November following an anticipated decline in nonfarm payrolls in October, still consistent with a gradually weakening labor market.

Also on tap are delayed retail sales figures for the month of October, along with an initial estimate on business activity for the current month by S&P Global.

"The FOMC (the Federal Open Market Committee) is now very much in 'data-dependent' mode, with the reaction function continuing to tilt almost entirely towards supporting a stalling U.S. labor market," said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.

"Hence, any softness should spark a modest dovish repricing of policy expectations."

Investors are pricing in at least 50 basis points of interest rate cuts next year, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

At 7:13 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 5 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 3.5 points, or 0.05%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 32.5 points, or 0.13%.

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower in the previous session, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq hitting a three-week low, as rate cut uncertainty and tech valuation worries spooked investors, while they weighed reports on developments around selecting a nominee to the Fed chair role.

Traders also rotated into other areas of the market such as healthcare and banks that have outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 on a quarterly basis.

The Russell 2000 index, tracking rate-sensitive small caps, along with the blue-chip Dow have also witnessed notable gains over the past three months.

Among others, B. Riley jumped 31.2% in premarket trading after the investment bank reported a profit for the second quarter, compared with a year-ago loss in an overdue quarterly filing.

Accenture (ACN) gained 1.9% after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the IT consulting firm to "overweight" from "equal weight".

Ford Motor (F) said it will take a $19.5 billion writedown and is killing several EV models, in the most dramatic example yet of the auto industry's retreat from battery-powered models. Shares of the legacy automaker were up 1.3%.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report said Nasdaq submitted paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to roll out round-the-clock trading of stocks, months after the New York Stock Exchange and Cboe Global Markets announced similar plans. (Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)