US pre-open: Futures in the green ahead of nonfarm jobs report
Wall Street futures were slightly higher ahead of the bell on Friday as market participants awaited the Labor Department's April jobs report with bated breath.
As of 1200 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.28%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.27% and 0.35% higher, respectively.
The Dow closed 318.19 points higher on Thursday after a better-than-expected reading on jobless claims.
The all-important monthly nonfarm payrolls report will be the session's main focus, scheduled for release at 1330 BST, with Wall Street expecting to see the addition of 1.0m payrolls last month as the unemployment rate was pegged to have fallen to 5.8% from 6%.
This month's job report will be of particular importance as the Federal Reserve continues to keep its promise of maintaining its zero rates policy until it feels the US labour market is in a strong enough position and inflation heats up.
With market participants already concerned about inflation, a strong nonfarm jobs report could be an indicator to the central bank that conditions were finally starting to return to a more normalised level.
SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said: "At present, the Dow Jones isn't willing to join in with the European excitement. Instead, the futures point to an unchanged open – very much a placeholder state, however, until the release of this month’s nonfarm jobs report.
"With Jerome Powell seeking a 'string' of strong jobs reports – with a string defined as 'more than one' – before he will consider tapering the Federal Reserve's current stimulus, this Friday's release is as high stakes as they come."
On the macro front, the ISM's April New York Index will be published at 1445 BST, March's wholesale inventories data will follow at 1500 BST and consumer credit change figures for March were slated for release at 1900 BST.
In the corporate space, AMC Entertainment, Draftkings and MoneyGram will all report earnings on Friday.