Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Stock futures rose Thursday night as investors prepared themselves for the upcoming April jobs report, due Friday morning.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 212 points, or 0.55%. S&P 500 futures rose nearly 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures advanced about 0.5%.
In extended trading, Apple advanced more than 6% after it announced a $110 billion share repurchase and a top -and bottom-line beat. Biotech Amgen surged roughly 13% after posting better-than-expected earnings and revenue numbers, while Cloudflare lost 15% after reporting weak guidance on revenue for the full year.
The three major U.S. stock indexes ended Thursday higher. The S&P 500 popped 0.91%, while the Dow gained 0.85%. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed and gained 1.51%.
Despite Thursday’s bounce, the major averages remain on pace to end the week in negative territory. The S&P 500 is off by 0.7% week to date, while the Nasdaq is down nearly 0.6%. The Dow is down 0.04% for the period.
At the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday, Chair Jerome Powell appeared to rule out a hike as the central bank’s next move, but that doesn’t necessarily mean traders should begin hoping for cuts in the near future.
“While rate cuts are unlikely in the short term because inflation remains elevated, the hurdle for rate hikes is really high. Continued strength in the labor market also reduces the urgency to cut, but the potential cap on rates right now combined with a strong economy is a positive for equities,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group.
On Friday, the central bank and all of Wall Street will be eyeing the April nonfarm payrolls report, with close attention to changes in wages.
Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting 240,000 positions to have been added, marking a slowdown from the 303,000 jobs gained in March. They also anticipate that average hourly wages grew by 4% year over year, and they expect the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.8%.