April payroll and unemployment data is today
Wall Street is poised to open higher on Friday as market participants await U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
The Department of Labor will publish the figures at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect unemployment rate to have held at 3.8% last month while the U.S. economy added 190,000 jobs, according to figures compiled by The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. stocks index futures were up heading into the report. At 4:53 a.m. ET, futures on the blue-chip Dow advanced 77 points, or 0.29% to 26,342. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked 39.37 points, or 0.51% to 7,773.62 while those on the S&P 500 rose 9.62 points, or 0.33% to 2,927.12.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has bought shares of Amazon
Warren Buffett on Thursday disclosed in an interview with CNBC that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) has been buying stock in Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Mr. Buffett revealed that someone at his multinational investment conglomerate has bought some Amazon shares, but the billionaire investor said that he was not the one behind the purchases.
“One of the fellows in the office that manage money… bought some Amazon so it will show up in the 13F,” the Oracle of Omaha said. Shares of Amazon added $40.16, or 2.11% to $1,940.98 in pre-market trading on Friday.
Facebook looking to build cryptocurrency-based payment system
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion in outside funding to help it launch a crypto-based payment system, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The journal said that the social media giant has reached out to big e-commerce merchants, payments processors like First Data Corp (NYSE: FDC) as well as payment networks such as Mastercard Inc (NYSE: MA) and Visa Inc (NYSE: V) to support the launch.
Separately, Facebook announced on Thursday that it has banned some high-profile individuals, such as Infowars founder Alex Jones and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan from its platforms.
Other persons affected by the ban include Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, and Laura Loomer.
The company described the individuals as “dangerous” adding that it will delete all their accounts, pages and groups. Facebook shares were up slightly to $193.23 in pre-market trading on Friday.
Earnings alert
Investors will also be closely watching several quarterly financial reports today. American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AXL), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V (NYSE: FCAU), Newell Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: NWL), DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc (NASDAQ: XRAY), and DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ: DISH) report before the opening bell.
