US pre-open: Futures slightly lower ahead of November NFP report
Wall Street futures had stocks opening slightly lower ahead of the bell on Friday as market participants awaited the release of November's non-farm payrolls report later in the day.
As of 1210 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.09%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.11% and 0.10% lower, respectively.
The Dow closed 617.75 points higher on Thursday after as stocks tied closely to an economic reopening ended the session in the green.
Friday's primary focus will be the November jobs report at 1430 GMT, with investors expecting to see solid job growth last month and economists predicting 573,000 jobs to have been added in November as the unemployment rate was seen slipping to 4.5%.
AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "Today is the most important day 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 as the economic data sets the trading tone for today and also influences it 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.
"US and European stock futures are trading higher, although traders are going to take a very cautious approach ahead of the US NFP data. Generally speaking, there is minimal volume in the markets ahead of this data as the action tends to happen only after the economic reading. Market players are expecting the US NFP number to produce another set of strong readings. But at the same time, investors are also going to closely look at the impact of Omicron variant on the US economy."
Elsewhere on the macro front, last month's ISM non-manufacturing PMI and October factory orders data will follow at 1600 GMT.
Covid-19 concerns were also still in focus ahead of the bell, with the omicron variant now being detected in five US states but symptoms, so far, were said to only be mild.