US STOCKS-Futures edge higher ahead of nonfarm payrolls report
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* Futures up: Dow 0.10%, S&P 0.22%, Nasdaq 0.35%
By
The Labor Department's report, due at
Economists surveyed by Reuters expect nonfarm payrolls to increase by 400,000 jobs in December after rising 210,000 in November.
The data comes after minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting signaled the central bank may have to raise interest rates sooner than expected amid a "very tight" job market and unabated inflation.
The hawkish tone spurred a rally in U.S. Treasury yields while prompting investors to swap technology-heavy growth shares with more cyclical parts of the market such as energy, financials and industrials that tend to do better in a high interest-rate environment.
"A stronger-than-expected (jobs) number might add to the
impression given by the recently released minutes of the Fed's
latest meeting that rates are set to rise further and faster in
the short term and provide another jolt to markets,"
Fed funds futures imply an 80% chance of a 25-basis point tightening at the March Fed meeting, and at least three rate hikes by the end of the year.
Shares of Occidental Petroleum and Citigroup (C) rose 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively, in premarket trading, leading gains among major oil and banking companies.
The S&P 500 energy sector, which has gained 9% so
far this week, was set for its best weekly rise in ten months.
The broader value index added 0.8% this week,
outperforming its growth counterpart, which is eyeing its
worst week since late
At
All the three major
Mega-cap tech titans Apple Inc (AAPL), Microsoft Corp (MSFT) , Amazon.com Inc and Tesla Inc (TSLA) were up between 0.6% and 1.5%, nursing some steep losses suffered this week.
GameStop Corp (GME) jumped 16.9% after the video game retailer and "meme stock" said it is launching a division to develop a marketplace for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and establish cryptocurrency partnerships.
Starbucks Corp (SBUX) fell 1.7% after RBC downgraded the
specialty coffee retailer's stock to "sector perform" from
"outperform".
(Reporting by