U.S. stock futures wobbled Friday as investors digested the final monthly jobs report of the year, a crucial test of the prospects for lower interest rates in December and beyond.
Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures (YM=F) and on the S&P 500 (ES=F) both were up 0.1%, after the gauges has moved away from historic highs at Thursday's close. Meanwhile, contracts on the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) were approximately 0.2% higher.
THE The US economy created 227,000 jobs in Novemberslightly more than expected, as the labor market rebounded after October data which was negatively impacted by bad weather and strikes. Against all expectations, the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%. Josh Schafer of Yahoo Finance has all the details here.
The report largely matched hopes for a “Goldilocks” reading – strong enough to ease concerns about the economy, but moderate enough to leave the Fed's options open on a rate cut this month and l next year.
As of Friday, markets were pricing in a roughly 90% chance that the Fed would cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Dec. 18, according to the report. CME FedWatch Toolcompared to around 70% before the report.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin rally (BTC-USD) continued to weaken, with the cryptocurrency falling to trade around $98,000. Show options some investors are guarding against a bigger pullback after the main token's record high climb over $100,000 for the first time. The rally was spurred by hopes of support for digital currencies from President-elect Donald Trump, who Thursday named old PayPal (PYPL) COO David Sacks as “White House AI and Crypto Czar.”
On the business side, the actions of Lululemon (LULU) And Ulta Beauty (ULTA) jumped in pre-market trading after the retailers both raised their profit forecasts.
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