US pre-open: Futures in the red following Dow's worst day since 2020

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Friday after the Dow Jones shed more than 1,000 points in the previous session.

As of 1220 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.76%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 1.05% and 1.20% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 1,063.09 points lower on Thursday, the blue-chip's worst single-day performance since 2020.

Friday's primary focus will likely be last month's nonfarm payrolls and unemployment rate data at 1330 BST, with economists expecting to see US employers add 400,000 jobs in April, down slightly from the 431,000 added in March, and the unemployment rate fall to 3.5%, down from 3.6% in March.

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "Today is the most important day of the whole month for market players as today we will get to see the latest reading of the US NFP data. This economic reading commands the most attention among investors and traders. The economic data not only set the trading tone for today but also for the rest of the month. As always, the Fed will watch this data very closely, and it is highly likely to influence their monetary policy decision.

"Traders are going to take a very cautious approach ahead of the US NFP data. Generally speaking, there is a minimal volume in the markets ahead of this data as the action tends to happen only after the economic reading. Market players expect the US NFP number to produce another set of decent readings, which could only push the US dollar index higher."

Elsewhere on the macro front, March consumer credit change figures will be published at 2000 BST, while the Federal Reserve's John Williams, Raphael Bostic and Christopher Waller will all deliver speeches at 1415 BST, 2020 BST, and 0015 BST, respectively.

In the corporate space, Dish Network reported first-quarter earnings of $0.68 per share, just short of the $0.69 expected on the Street, on revenues of $4.33bn, which were also missed estimates of $4.38bn.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at sharecast.com