US stock futures trod water on Friday as investors marked time ahead of the last monthly jobs report of the year, a crucial test of the prospects for interest-rate cuts in December and beyond.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and the S&P 500 (ES=F) were little changed after the gauges drifted away from all-time highs at Thursday’s close. Meanwhile, contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) also traded broadly flat.
Wall Street is holding fire in the wait to find out whether the November jobs report supports Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s view that the US economy is in a good place. A post-hurricane rebound in payrolls is expected, after recent data showed a labor market that’s cooling, but not collapsing.
Hopes are for a “Goldilocks” reading — strong enough to dampen concerns about the economy, but soft enough to keep the Fed’s options open on lowering rates this month and into next year.
The report, due for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show nonfarm payrolls rose by 215,000 in November, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%.
A print that meets those expectations is unlikely to shift the needle on rate-cut calculations, economists believe. On Friday, markets were pricing in 68% odds the Fed lowers rates by a quarter percentage point on Dec. 18, per the CME FedWatch Tool.
Meanwhile, the rally in bitcoin (BTC-USD) continued to flag, with the cryptocurrency slipping to trade around $98,000. Options show some investors are hedging against a deeper pullback after the leading token’s record-breaking surge to over $100,000 for the first time. The rally has been spurred by hopes of support for digital currencies from President-elect Donald Trump, who on Thursday named former PayPal (PYPL) COO David Sacks as his “White House AI & Crypto Czar”.
On the corporate front, shares of Lululemon (LULU) and Ulta Beauty (ULTA) jumped in premarket trading after the retailers both boosted profit forecasts.
Coming soon
Live stock market coverage for Friday, Dec. 6, 2024
