Stock futures higher ahead of jobs report

[December 04, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stocks are looking to open modestly higher as investors bet that the Labor Department will report an improvement in the nation's job market.

Stock index futures are up on expectations that the department will report Friday that employers cut a net total of 130,000 jobs in November, keeping the nation's jobless rate at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent.

Although futures are higher, the market is still nervous. Investors anxious about what the report would say sold stocks sharply lower in the final half-hour of trading on Thursday. And stocks are down in overseas markets ahead of the report.

Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 18, or 0.2 percent, at 10,370. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures are up 1.90, or 0.2 percent, at, 1,099.90, while Nasdaq 100 index futures are up 1.25, or 0.1 percent, at 1,781.50.

[Associated Press; By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS]

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