Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on April 25, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
US stock futures opened little changed on Thursday as investors braced for the non-farm payrolls report on Friday morning.
Linked futures contracts Dow Jones Industrial Average It rose by 16 points, or 0.04%. Standard & Poor's 500 futures And Nasdaq 100 futures Hovering near the flat line.
In normal trading, Dao It rose 78.84 points, or 0.20%. the Standard & Poor's 500 It decreased by 0.02% Nasdaq Composite lost 0.09%
All three major averages are on pace for a winning week. The Dow gained 0.52%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.43% and the Nasdaq was on track for a 2.62% advance.
Investors are looking forward to Friday's May nonfarm payrolls report, scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. They will look for signs of a weak labor market, as evidence of a slowing economy may support interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 190,000 jobs to be added, and expect wages to grow 3.9% year over year.
A slowing economy is just one reason for the overall market to remain bullish this year, according to Ed Clissold, chief U.S. strategist at Ned Davis Research.
“There's not a lot of reasons to get out of what's been a good year so far,” he said on CNBC's “Closing Bell” on Thursday. “The first quarter earnings season is over, with more than 80% of companies beating estimates. (It looks) like the second quarter will see an acceleration in earnings growth. We are looking at an economic slowdown, not an immediate recession. The over-optimism that we saw in March/ March, it was largely worked on.”
“For the most part, it's a bull market until proven otherwise,” he added.
The jobs report comes after the European Central Bank on Thursday cut interest rates for the first time since 2019, increasing pressure on the Fed to potentially ease policy.
The Fed is scheduled to issue its decision on interest rates next week after its June 11-12 policy meeting. Fed funds futures trading data suggests the central bank will likely keep interest rates steady this time, but implies a roughly 70% chance that policymakers will ease monetary policy in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
