More gains ahead for U.S. stocks
U.S. stock futures were pointing to an extension of this week’s rally at the Wall Street open on Friday, in what is already the best week for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since April.
By 5:25 a.m. ET, futures tied to the Dow traded 325 points, or 1.24% higher to 26,578. S&P 500 futures were up 26.12 points, or 0.74% to 3,136.62 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a gain of 44.13 points, or 0.46% to 9,670.38.
Yesterday, the Dow closed 11.93 points higher to 26,281.82 while the S&P 500 dropped 10.52 points, or 0.3%, to finish the session at 3,112.35. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 67.10 points, or 0.7%, lower to end at 9,615.81.
All eyes on unemployment report
Traders are looking towards today’s jobs report which will be released by the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Economists polled by Refinitiv expect to see another 8 million lost in May, underscoring how quickly the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the U.S. labor market.
That would raise the nationwide unemployment rate to 19.5%, a level topped only during the worst years of the Great Depression when the jobless rate was estimated to have hit 25%.
Employers shed a total of 21.4 million jobs in March and April.
The employment figures come on the heels of the initial jobless claims that showed nearly 1.9 million people filed for claims last week.
Shift4 Payments prices IPO at $23
Meanwhile, payment-processing and technology company Shift4 Payments has priced its initial public offering at $23 a share, according to a Thursday regulatory filing. The company had aimed to sell 15 million shares at a target price range of $19-$21 a share.
The company had a first-quarter net loss of $5.2 million, down from a net loss of $13.5 million in the same period last year. Gross revenue grew nearly 29% to $199.4 million for the first quarter of this year.
CEO Jared Isaacman has indicated an interest to buy shares of up to $100 million at a price equal to the IPO price. Its shares are expected to begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FOUR.
