Stocks poised for a mixed start
U.S. stock futures were mixed on Friday morning, one day after Wall Street tumbled as major tech stocks such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted steep declines.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, Dow futures indicated a gain of 123.5 points, or 0.44% to 28,474.5. The S&P 500 futures were up 10.62 points, or 0.31% to 3,472.12 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded 48.12 points, or 0.41% to 11,752.38.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday shed 807.77 points, or 2.8% to end the session at 28,292.73. The Nasdaq gave away 598.34 points, or 5%, to close at 11,458.10 while the S&P 500 lost 125.78 points, or 3.5% to end at 3,455.06.
August jobs report the focus today
The focus today will be on the U.S. jobs report for August due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by data provider FactSet expect the report to show jobs grew by 1.4 million jobs in August compared to 1.74 million jobs in July. This would still leave the country about 11 million jobs short of the figure it has lost to the coronavirus pandemic.
The unemployment rate is projected to have fallen slightly to 9.8% from July’s 10.2%. This would still be just below the peak unemployment rate of the Great Recession of 2008-2009.
Economists worry that layoffs will continue and that any recovery will likely stall if the virus rages and lawmakers fail to extend unemployment benefits for those affected by the pandemic.
Google reportedly likely to face antitrust suit from the Justice Department
U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is likely to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google possibly by the end of this month, according to the New York Times.
The newspaper says that Barr overruled dozens of federal attorneys in his charge who initially signaled the Trump administration needed more time to build a strong case against Google’s monopolistic practices.
Google dominates online advertising and controls about 90 percent of web-search traffic globally. Competitors have complained that the search engine giant extended its dominance by making its browsing and search tools defaults on phones with its Android OS.
Shares of Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) were little changed in Friday’s pre-market trading session.
Malaysia withdraws criminal charges against Goldman Sachs over the 1MDB scandal
Malaysian prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against three Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) units that were accused of duping investors over $6.5 billion in bond sales they helped organize for the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB) state investment fund.
Local media reported early Friday that Malaysia withdrew the charges after Goldman Sachs recently agreed to pay $3.9 billion to the government to settle an investigation into its alleged role in the scandal.
Goldman has repeatedly insisted that the three units, which are based in London, Singapore and Hong Kong, did nothing wrong. In July, former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to serve 12 years behind bars for his role in the scandal.
