Recent labor data has helped underpin optimism about economy
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures edged higher on Friday ahead of jobs data that will provide more clues about the strength of the economic recovery.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJ2H +0.86% gained 27 points to 12,693 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index SP2H +0.89% climbed 3.10 points to 1,325.8.
Nasdaq 100 futures ND2H +0.93% rose 8 points to 2,499.5.
The main event on Friday is the Labor Department’s jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect that the U.S. economy added 121,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate remained at 8.5%. Data for January, however, tend to be distorted by unusual factors.
“Having been the main disappointment for most of the U.S. recovery, the U.S. jobs numbers have mostly surprised to the upside in recent months, with five of the past six releases coming out stronger than expected on the headline number,” said strategists at FxPro. That has “helped to underpin some of the recent optimism regarding the U.S. economy,” they said.
At 10 a.m. Eastern, the Institute for Supply Management will release its non-manufacturing report on business for January.
Shares of Acme Packet Inc. APKT -8.71% slumped in premarket trade after the telecommunications-equipment firm reported late Thursday a steep drop in quarterly profit.
European stocks edged higher on Friday, with the Stoxx 600 index XX:SXXP +0.93% up 0.4% to 261.25 in midday trade. Investors are keeping an eye on Greece, where talks between the government and private-sector creditors on a debt-restructuring deal are reportedly expected to resume this weekend.
In the currency markets, the euro EURUSD -0.11% rose 0.2% against the dollar to $1.3161. The dollar index DXY +0.23% , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, slipped to 78.917 from 79.010 in late North American trade Thursday.
Crude oil for March delivery CL2H +0.56% gained 15 cents to $96.51 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. April gold futures edged higher to $1,760 an ounce.
The blue-chip Dow index DJIA -0.09% slipped 0.1% on Thursday, while the S&P 500 index SPX +0.11% gained 0.1%. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Budget Committee on Thursday that the U.S. economy is improving, but the outlook remains uncertain.
