US shares look set to start the last day of the trading week higher as the monthly job creation number rolls into view and as traders mull another slew of corporate earnings.
The US stocks ended Thursday on a mostly positive note, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down nearly eight points at 25,326. The tech heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.24%, or around 95 points, as tech titan Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) hit the milestone US$1 trillion market cap.
The S&P 500 closed out nearly 14 points higher at 2,827.
US NFP in focus: The Non-farm payrolls will mostly likely drive the markets as it is one of the biggest movers. This reading is expected to be strong to show that the US labour markets remained robust. #marketanalysis #gomarkets #USD pic.twitter.com/gzfXDhqnow
— GO Markets (@go_markets) 3 August 2018
In futures trade today, the Dow Jones is up 11 points; the Nasdaq is ahead by 6.50 and the S&P 500 is up by 0.75 points.
Another solid month of gains is expected when the non-farm payroll number for July is released at 8.30am EST.
The US has added an average of over 214,000 jobs a month this year after blasting past expectations for May and June. For today's report, analysts have penciled in 190,000 new jobs. Certainly the US economy is in forward gear currently.
Meanwhile, in the UK yesterday, the central bank raised the base interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75%, which had been widely expected.
The benchmark index FTSE 100 is up almost 51 points at 7,626; the German DAX is ahead by 57 and France's CAC 40 is up by around 16 at 5,477.
With an eye on the Wall start re-start, analyst Connor Campbell at Spreadex in London, said that unlike the FTSE and co. the Dow Jones had managed to erase most of Thursday’s losses before the session was over, the trade war fears countered by Apple becoming the world’s first ever $1 trillion company.
"There will also be a certain level of reticence ahead of the non-farm figures, given the relative hawkishness of the Fed earlier in the week," he noted.
In Asia overnight, the Nikkei 225 closed 12.65 at 22,525, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed down over 27 points at 2,740.