The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a higher open on Friday, with stocks likely to move to the upside after showing a lack of direction over the two previous sessions.
The futures climbed more firmly into positive territory following the release of a closely watched Labor Department repot showing much stronger than expected job growth in the month of September.
The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 254,000 jobs in September after climbing by an upwardly revised 159,000 jobs in August.
Economists had expected employment to rise by 140,000 jobs compared to the addition of 142,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The report also showed the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1 percent in September from 4.2 percent in August. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.
The stronger than expected jobs growth is likely to help ease concerns about the economic outlook, although it may also ease optimism the Federal Reserve will continue to aggressively lower interest rates in the coming months.
Following the jobs data, CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is indicating a 91.2 chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point in November and just a 8.8 percent chance of another half point rate cut.
Following the lackluster performance seen during trading on Wednesday, stocks continued to experience choppy trading during Thursday’s session. The major averages once again spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.
The major averages eventually finished the day modestly lower. While the Nasdaq edged down 6.65 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 17,918.48, the S&P 500 slipped 9.60 points or 0.2 percent to 5,699.94 and the narrower Dow fell 184.93 points or 0.4 percent to 42,011.59.
The lack of direction on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department’s highly anticipated monthly jobs report.
A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report this morning showing an uptick by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended September 28th.
Traders also kept an eye on the latest developments in the Middle East, where an escalating conflict has contributed to a sharp increase by the price of crude oil.
The Israel Defense Forces said around 100 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israel earlier today, while the IDF also said they have killed several Hezbollah commanders in a strike on a military structure in southern Lebanon.
The latest developments come following Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this week, with Israel vowing a “very strong” response.
Gold stocks saw substantial weakness on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2.0 percent. The weakness in the sector came despite a modest increase by the price of gold.
Significant weakness was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.4 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.
Steel, networking and biotechnology stocks also showed notable moves to the downside, while energy stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of crude oil.