Following a relatively unchanged day of trading on Wednesday, stock markets are poised to face downward pressure at Friday's opening, with trading resuming after a national day of mourning observed on Thursday.
At present, the futures for the primary indexes indicate a notable decline at the market open, as S&P 500 futures are down by 1.1%. This downward shift is largely attributed to the Labor Department’s release of its widely monitored monthly employment report.
The report unveiled a stronger-than-anticipated job growth for December, intensifying existing concerns regarding the prospective trajectory of interest rates. According to the Labor Department, non-farm payroll employment surged by 256,000 jobs in December, following a revised increase of 212,000 jobs reported in November. Economists had forecasted a rise of just 160,000 jobs, against the initially reported addition of 227,000 for November.
Additionally, the report indicated a slight drop in the unemployment rate, which declined to 4.1% in December from November's 4.2%. Economists had predicted the unemployment rate would remain unchanged.
While these figures highlight a robust labor market, they also aim to bolster the Federal Reserve's confidence in their strategy to incrementally lower interest rates throughout the upcoming year.
Reflecting on Tuesday’s steep downturn, stocks demonstrated an indecisive trend during Wednesday's session. The major indexes oscillated around the unchanged mark, closing with minor variations. The tech-dominated Nasdaq slipped by 10.80 points, or 0.1%, to close at 19,478.87. In contrast, the Dow Jones climbed 106.84 points, or 0.3%, to 42,635.20, and the S&P 500 ticked up 9.22 points, or 0.2%, to 5,918.25.
In global trading, most stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region recorded losses on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell by 1.1%, and China's Shanghai Composite Index dropped by 1.3%.
Conversely, European markets presented a mixed outlook. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index decreased by 0.4%, whereas France’s CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.1%, and Germany’s DAX Index increased by 0.3%.
In commodities, crude oil futures have surged, rising $2.87 to reach $76.70 per barrel, following a $0.60 increase to $73.92 per barrel on Thursday. Conversely, gold futures have slightly decreased by $0.50 to $2,690.30 an ounce after a significant increase of $18.40 in the previous session.
On the foreign exchange front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 158.73 yen, up from the 158.14 yen recorded at Thursday’s close in New York. Against the euro, the dollar's value stands at $1.0242, compared to $1.0300 the day before.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company -
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