US pre-open: Futures in the green ahead of April NFP report

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Friday ahead of key jobs data. As of 1250 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.80%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.40% and 0.68% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 322.37 points higher on Thursday but was still on track to end the week in negative territory.

Friday's primary focus will be April's nonfarm payrolls report, due out at 1330 BST, with close attention likely to be paid to wage changes. Economists expect to see 240,000 positions being added last month, marking a slowdown from March's reading of 303,000 jobs. Average hourly wages were forecast to grow 4% year-on-year, while the unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 3.8%.

Elsewhere on the macro front, S&P Global's composite and services PMIs will be published at 1445 BST, while last month's ISM service PMI was set for release at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, Apple traded higher in pre-market after the tech behemoth announced a $110.0bn share buyback programme and reported both a top -and bottom-line beat, while Amgen reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue numbers, and Cloudflare shares headed south after issuing weak revenue guidance for the year as a whole.

"Uncertainty surrounding the impending US jobs report appears to have taken a back seat for now, with yesterday's Apple earnings providing a boost to sentiment given that it served to remind markets of the power of share buybacks. With 78% of the S&P 500 having reported, recent market jitters appear to have started to ease as observed through a sharp decline in the VIX in the past 10 trading days," said Scope Markets' Joshua Mahony.

"Looking ahead, todays US jobs report does provide a potential banana skin for markets, with a resurgence in wage growth looking like the biggest potential hurdle to market sentiment today. Coming off the back of five consecutive NFP beats, the speculation of a decline in the payrolls figure could simply set us up for another strong figure. While much of the payrolls outperformance has come from double counting via part-time roles, the depressed nature of US unemployment does essentially signal that the Fed can hold off for as long as they need to. The sharp rise in the quarterly employment cost index this week does provide a warning that we might seen a resurgence in wage pressures, further reiterating the Fed's need to remain steadfast in a bid to drive down inflation pressures before cutting rates."

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com