Wall Street was set for a higher open on Friday after data pointing to slowing job growth and an uptick in the unemployment rate boosted investor expectations that the Federal Reserve was done with its monetary policy tightening campaign.
The Labor Department’s report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 150,000 jobs in October, against expectations of a 180,000 increase, partly due to strikes at Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
Data for the last month was revised lower to show an increase of 297,000 instead of the 336,000 reported previously, while the unemployment rate edged up to 3.9% against expectations it would stay steady 3.8%.
The reading, which came on the heels of a mixed set of labor data this week, bolstered the view that the Fed had reached the end of its rate hikes.
“It (the report) is consistent with the views of the market that the job market and the economy is decelerating and that’s going to keep the Fed on hold and will cause central banks next year to cut rates,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive officer at Infrastructure Capital Management.
Traders’ bets that the Federal Reserve would hold interest rates steady in December rose to 90% from 83% before the data, while the chance of a rate hike by January fell to around 20% after the report, versus about 30% before the report.
A slide in Treasury yields boosted most megacap growth stocks, with Tesla, Nvidia and Alphabet, up between 0.4% and 1.3%.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell to its lowest since Oct. 12 after the payrolls data and was last at 4.578%.
Apple pared losses and was last down 1.4% in premarket trading after its sales forecast for the current quarter fell short of Wall Street expectations, even as an uptick in iPhone sales lifted fourth-quarter results above estimates.
Wall Street’s main indexes rallied on Thursday, with the S&P 500 logging its biggest one-day percentage gain since April on growing optimism that the Federal Reserve had reached the end of its monetary tightening campaign.
The recent inflow of strong corporate updates have also kept the three major indexes on track for their biggest weekly gain in about a year. Of the 376 firms in the S&P 500 that have reported so far, nearly 81% have beaten earnings estimates, as per LSEG data.
At 8:45 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 141 points, or 0.42%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 20.25 points, or 0.47%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 55.75 points, or 0.37%.
Among major movers, Fortinet dropped 22.2% premarket as the cybersecurity firm forecast fourth-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates.
Coinbase shares fell 2.5%after the cryptocurrency exchange’s trading volumes declined for the second quarter in a row.
Block jumped 18.5% after the payments firm raised its annual adjusted profit forecast.
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