US pre-open: Futures higher ahead of March NFP reading
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Friday 02 May 2025
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Friday as traders patiently awaited April's all-important non-farm payrolls report.
As of 1225 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.41%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.43% and 0.29% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 83.60 points higher on Thursday as investors cheered some solid quarterly earnings from big tech names like Meta Platforms and Microsoft.
Friday's primary focus will undoubtedly be last month's non-farm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 1330 BST, with economists expecting to see US employers add 130,000 jobs in April, down from 228,000 in March, while the unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 4.2%.
Trade headlines were also drawing an amount of investor attention prior to the open after China said it is considering US calls to begin trade talks, potentially opening the door for Washington and Beijing to put a stop to a trade war that has rocked financial markets.
China claimed that senior US officials had reached out "through relevant parties multiple times", hoping to start negotiations on tariffs, according to a spokesperson for the commerce ministry. However, while considering the possibility of launching negotiations, Chinese authorities also reiterated that the US would have to remove all unilateral tariffs and that failure to do so would amount to "an outright lack of sincerity" from the Trump administration and "further compromise mutual trust".
"If the US wants to talk, it should show its sincerity and be prepared to correct its wrong practices and cancel the unilateral tariffs," it said.
Elsewhere on the macro front, March factory orders data will be published at 1500 BST.
In the corporate space, Apple was in the red after reporting Q2 services revenues that fell short of Wall Street expectations and revelaed that it expects to add $900.0m in costs in the current quarter as a result of the "Liberation Day" tariffs to tariffs, while Amazon shares were also lower after issuing soft guidance as a result of "tariffs and trade policies".
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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