Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Friday as traders look ahead to key jobs data.
As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.35%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 had the indices opening 0.43% and 0.55% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 784.67 points lower on Thursday, more than erasing gains recorded in the previous session and putting the blue chip index on track for its second consecutive losing week.
Friday’s primary focus will likely be February’s non-farm payrolls report, due out at 1330 GMT, with economists expecting 59,000 jobs added to the US economy last month, down from 130,000 in January. The unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 4.3%.
Swissquote‘s Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: “Today’s US jobs data would ideally come in strong to keep market sentiment as positive as possible heading into the weekend. Weak data would struggle to fuel dovish Fed expectations at a time when inflation risks are rising alongside energy prices.
“Given rising inflation risks, stronger data could trigger a positive market reaction, while weaker-than-expected figures could fuel stagflation concerns – rising unemployment alongside persistent inflation – and weigh on US equities ahead of the weekly close.”
Elsewhere on the macro front, January retail sales figures will also be released at 1330 GMT, while December business inventories numbers will follow at 1500 GMT.
Oil prices also continued to draw investor attention, ticking up again early on Friday as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains on hold, with West Texas Intermediate futures up 0.11% at $81.01 per barrel, while Brent crude futures 0.39% higher at $85.74 a barrel, pitting crude prices on a course for their biggest weekly percentage gain in four years.
No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Friday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
