US pre-open: Stocks to open slightly higher as investors eye non-farm payroll

Ahead of the releases of the all-important non-farm payroll report, US futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street as oil prices rebounded.

Stocks closed flat in the previous session as energy stocks proved a extra drag, with Thursday morning seeing the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 34%, S&P 500 futures 0.37% high and Nasdaq futures up 0.34%.

Investors were eyeing the non-farm payrolls after strong employment data from ADP, which revealed that the economy added 298,000 private sector jobs in February well ahead of expectations, while initial jobless claims rose to 243,000 last week from 223,000.

Markus Huber, a trader at City of London Markets, said that neither a very strong nor a weak number from the non-farm payroll report will necessarily prevent the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates next Wednesday.

“All in all, a strong set of employment data is most likely preferred as this will instil confidence that the US economy can weather another rate hike.”

This was echoed by analysts at Monex Europe who said that the non-farm payroll report would have to be catastrophic in order to bring doubts about next week’s virtually nailed-on interest rate hike, as it has already been priced in, while investors will be looking for signals of further labour market tightening on higher wages that could start to point towards the timing of the next hike.

The non-farm payroll report, unemployment rate and average hourly earnings will all be published at 1330 GMT.

Meanwhile, oil futures were slightly higher after finishing at the lowest in over three months on Thursday after higher-than-expected US inventory data raised concerns of oversupply and sparked a sell-off.

West Texas Intermediate was up 0.64% to $49.60 a barrel - it went below the $50 mark for the first time in 2017 on Thursday - while Brent crude rose 0.55% to $52.48.

In currency markets, the dollar was flat against the pound to 0.8223, was down 0.32% versus the euro to 0.9424 and 0.39% higher against yen to 115.40.

In corporate news, MGM Holdings could be in focus following reports by the Wall Street Journal that it was going to buy-out partners Viacom and Lions Gate Entertainment from Epix, a pay-per-view television channel, to take sole ownership.

Commercial Vehicle Group was down 0.33% and Everspin Technologies was up 0.45% in pre-market trade ahead of the release of their quarterly earnings.