U.S. stock futures edged higher Friday as investors digested the latest Big Tech earnings ahead of the release of the highly anticipated monthly jobs report.
By 06:30 ET (10:30 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 45 points or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 15 points or 0.3% higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 80 points or 0.5%.
The benchmark Wall Street indices closed lower Thursday, taking a breather after hefty gains during July, with surging bond yields weighing.
Jobs report in spotlight
The tech sector has led the way on the promise of artificial intelligence to the industry and in hope the Federal Reserve would reach the end of its interest rate increases sooner rather than later.
With this in mind, the focus Friday will be on the monthly official jobs report, at 08:30 ET. This is expected to show that 200,000 new positions were created in July, down from 209,000 the prior month, indicating that job growth has decelerated to its lowest level since 2020.
Average hourly earnings is forecast to slow to 0.3% from 0.4% on a monthly basis, while the unemployment rate is still projected to stay unchanged at 3.6%, suggesting that the labor market remains robust.
Apple, Amazon release results
Elsewhere, quarterly earnings continue to emerge although the peak has passed. Roughly 79% of S&P 500 companies have given results, with about 80% surpassing Wall Street expectations, according to FactSet.
Goodyear Tire (NASDAQ:GT) is scheduled to report Friday, but most attention will be on the results after the close Thursday from tech behemoths Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Apple posted higher-than-anticipated quarterly income, thanks in part to strong services demand, but revenue still fell as consumers reined in spending on the iPhone and iPad maker’s gadgets.
Growth at Amazon’s cloud computing division slowed by less than expected in the second quarter, sparking hopes that the much scrutinized unit will soon see a turnaround from a recent downturn.
Additionally, Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG) and Dropbox (NASDAQ:DBX) will be in focus after releasing results after the close Thursday.
Crude gains on extended output cuts
Oil prices rose Friday, on course for the sixth consecutive week of gains on the back of output cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the world’s largest producers, tightening global supplies.
Saudi Arabia extended on Thursday a voluntary oil production cut of 1 million barrels per day until the end of September, while Russia has also said it will cut its oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day next month.
These cuts came just before a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies later this session, which makes further cuts from the cartel unlikely.
By 06:30 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.8% higher at $82.20 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.8% to $85.78.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,966.85/oz, while EUR/USD traded just higher at 1.0945.
