The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a lower open on Friday, with stocks likely to give back ground after ending the previous session mostly higher.
The futures came under pressure following the release of a highly anticipated Labor Department report showing employment in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.
The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 199,000 jobs in November after rising by 150,000 jobs in October. Economists had expected employment to climb by 180,000 jobs.
The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate dipped to 3.7 percent in November from 3.9 percent in October. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.
Treasury yields have jumped following the release of the report, as the data has partly offset recent optimism that the Federal Reserve could pivot toward interest rate cuts as soon as March 2024.
Shortly after the start of trading, the University of Michigan is scheduled to release its preliminary report on consumer sentiment in the month of December.
While the consumer sentiment index is expected to inch up to 62.0 in December after falling to 61.3 in November, traders may pay closer attention to the report’s readings on inflation expectations.
After moving mostly higher early in the session, stocks continued to turn in a strong performance throughout much of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages moved back to the upside following the downturn seen on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the rebound.
The Nasdaq jumped 193.28 points or 1.4 percent to 14,339.99, reaching its best closing level in over four months. The S&P 500 also advanced 36.25 points or 0.8 percent to 4,585.59, while the narrower Dow posted a more modest gain, edging up 62.95 points or 0.2 percent to 36,117.38.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report.
A day ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report showing a slight uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 2nd.
The report said initial jobless claims ticked up to 220,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 219,000.
Economist had expected jobless claims to rise to 222,000 from the 218,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Semiconductor stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.8 percent.
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) moved sharply higher after Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and OpenAI said they will use the company’s newest AI chip, the Instinct MI300X.
Substantial strength was also visible among airline stocks, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 2.6 percent to its best closing level in almost four months.
Computer hardware, banking and housing stocks also saw considerable strength, while gold and oil stocks moved to the downside.