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The
Labor Department's jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. ET is expected
to show nonfarm payrolls rose by 200,000 in November, less than
the increase in October, while the U.S. unemployment rate is
likely to remain at 3.7% in the last month.
Job growth for the last month was likely the smallest in nearly
two years as mounting worries of a recession cooled demand for
labor, which could give the Fed confidence to start slowing the
pace of its interest rate hikes this month.
Wall Street indexes closed mixed on Thursday following a sharp
rally the day before sparked by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's
comments on scaling back interest rates hikes as early as
December.
Thursday's moves followed a mixed bag of economic data,
including the personal consumption expenditure index, the Fed's
preferred inflation metric, which was better than expected,
while manufacturing activity shrank in November for the first
time in 2-1/2 years.
Investors now see a 91% chance that the U.S. central bank will
increase interest rates by 50 basis points in December, with the
rates peaking under 5% in May 2023.
"The market is looking for the Goldilocks scenario for U.S. jobs
numbers on Friday," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ
Bell.
"Ideally the labor market would neither be so hot that it
suggests the Fed needs to stay aggressive on rates nor so cold
that it implies the world's largest economy is headed for a
severe downturn."
Semiconductor company Marvell Technology Inc tumbled 6.9% in
premarket trading after quarterly earnings and revenue missed
expectations.
Automation software firm UiPath Inc jumped 10.2% on upbeat
quarterly earnings.
At 05:42 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 23 points, or 0.07%, S&P
500 e-minis were down 1 point, or 0.02%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis
were down 8.25 points, or 0.07%.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell to 10-week lows and the
two-year note, which often indicates interest rate expectations,
slipped to early October lows.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
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