U.S. stocks fell on Friday after a jobs report that will determine hopes for interest rate cuts showed much stronger job growth than expected.
Futures for the S&P 500 (ES=F) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) fell about 0.4% after the three major indexes traded lackluster on Thursday. Contracts for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) were down about 0.3%.
Stocks are eyeing a weekly gain after labor market data suggested the economy was slowing and raised hopes the Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates from 20-year highs.
The highly anticipated May jobs report may deal a bit of a blow to this view: the U.S. economy added 272,000 jobs in May, well above expectations, but the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.0%.
read more: How does the labor market affect inflation?
Elsewhere in the market, investors are also bracing for an apparently promised livestream from GameStop (GME) promoter Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty.” The event, scheduled for noon ET on Friday, will mark Gill’s first live YouTube appearance since fueling the meme stock’s rally three years ago.
GameStop shares closed 47% higher on Thursday but then plummeted after the video game retailer said it would sell up to 75 million shares and reported a drop in first-quarter sales.
Also looming after the market close is the completion of Nvidia’s (NVDA) 10-for-1 stock split. A midweek rally had briefly boosted the AI ​​chipmaker’s market cap to $3 trillion, but short selling has piled up and the stock has lost steam.
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