US pre-open: Futures point to losses ahead of nonfarm payrolls data
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Friday 03 Apr 2020
(Sharecast News) - US futures had stocks opening lower on Friday ahead of this week's nonfarm payrolls report.
As of 1240 BST, Dow futures were down 0.95%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.84% and 0.87% lower, respectively.
The Dow closed 469.93 points higher on Thursday after rebounding oil prices offset nerves around a miserable jobless claims report.
With more than ten million Americans, roughly 3% of the population, signing up for unemployment in the last two weeks alone, Friday's jobs report will be at the centre of attention for most investors. Thursday's 6.6 million jump in initial jobless claims already highlighted the massive impact the crisis has had upon unemployment in a short space of time.
Elsewhere, Donald Trump claimed overnight that the Covid-19 special committee launched by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was simply an extension of the impeachment proceedings his administration survived just before the pandemic placed him under the spotlight again.
"Here we go again," Trump said at a White House news briefing. "Witch hunt after witch hunt after witch hunt."
Of the day ahead, Oanda's Craig Erlam said: "Stock markets are heading into the weekend in the red, but investors may be a little encouraged by how the week has gone despite notching up small losses along the way. The extraordinary moves that became an all-too-regular feature in March are occurring less frequently or severely. The falling knife scenario that we were seeing is looking less hazardous which may entice people back in, with stocks still trading at very discounted levels.
"I must stress, this is not me calling a market bottom. The next two weeks will likely be quite distressing in the coronavirus fight and I expect that may have knock-on effects in the markets as well. If the panic selling has passed, as it appears to have done, it will be interesting to see what kind of defence the March low puts up, if tested."
Global cases of Covid-19 have topped one million, claiming 54,226 lives along the way. 245,380 cases have been recorded in the US.
On the macro front, nonfarm payrolls will be out at 1330 BST, while IHS Markit's composite and services PMI will follow at 1445 BST and ISM's non-manufacturing/services composite figures will be published at 1500 BST.
No major corporate earnings were scheduled for release on Friday.
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