Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, USA
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Stock futures rose Thursday night as investors geared up for April jobs data to be released Friday morning..
Futures, which track the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 232 points, or 0.6%. S&P 500 futures rose nearly 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose about 0.6%.
Apple rose more than 6% in after-hours trading after announcing a $110 billion share buyback and significant improvements in sales and bottom line profits. Biotech Amgen soared 14% after reporting better-than-expected profits and sales, while Cloudflare fell 14% after reporting a weak full-year sales outlook.
The three major US stock indexes ended higher on Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 0.91% and the Dow rose 0.85%. The Nasdaq Composite Index outperformed, rising 1.51%.
Despite Thursday’s rebound, major averages are still on pace to end the week in negative territory. The S&P 500 is down 0.7% since the start of the week, and the Nasdaq is down nearly 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.04% during the same period.
Chair Jerome Powell appeared to rule out raising rates as the central bank’s next move at the end of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean traders should start expecting rate cuts in the near future. do not have.
“With inflation remaining high, a rate cut is unlikely in the short term, but the hurdles for rate hikes are very high.The continued strength of the labor market also reduces the urgency for rate cuts. “The combination of potentially capped rate cuts and a strong economy is positive for stocks at this point,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group.
On Friday, central banks and Wall Street as a whole will be watching the April nonfarm payrolls report, paying close attention to changes in wages.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 240,000 jobs to be added, slowing from the 303,000 jobs added in March. It also expects average hourly wages to increase by 4% year-on-year and the unemployment rate to remain stable at 3.8%.
