All eyes on non-farm payrolls report
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a muted open for Wall Street on Friday, as the Labor Department prepares to release its employment report for July.
At 5 a.m. ET, Dow futures added 21 points, or 0.06% to 32,702. S&P 500 futures and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.
The focus is on employment numbers, with three important releases – nonfarm employment change, the unemployment rate, and average hourly earnings.
In a survey done by the Wall Street Journal, economists say they expect U.S. employers to have added 258,000 jobs in July, down from 372,000 in the prior month.
The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 3.6% for the fifth consecutive month. Average hourly earnings are expected to grow 0.3%, almost the same jump as in June.
With inflation a major concern for the nation and the Federal Reserve, traders and policymakers be closely watching the report to see what is happening with wage growth.
The Labor Department will publish the report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Bank of England announces biggest interest rate hike in 27 years
Meanwhile, the Bank of England (BOE) has its launched its largest interest-rate hike since 1995, and warned that the U.K. is likely to fall into its longest recession since the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
On Thursday, BOE’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to hike interest rates by 50 basis points to 1.75%. That marks the sixth time the central bank has increased rates since December.
In a press release, BOE said that inflationary pressures had “intensified significantly” over the past couple of weeks.
BOE predicted that the UK will fall into a recession in the fourth quarter of 2022, and also expects inflation to jump above 13% in the autumn.
Lyft shares surge 9% on record earnings
On the earnings front, Lyft (LYFT) shareholders got a huge boost early Friday morning when the share price rallied by more than 9% after the company reported the highest earnings in its history.
The ride-hailing giant said late Thursday that it had revenue of $990.7 million in the second-quarter ended June, up 30% from the same period a year ago. Adjusted earnings came in at 13 cents a share.
Analysts expected the company to post a loss of 4 cents per share on revenue of $989 million.
Lyft said active riders stood at 19.9 million, grew 12% on a year-over-year basis.
Looking ahead, the company expects third-quarter revenue to be in a range of $1.04 billion to $1.06 billion compared to analysts’ forecast of $1.12 billion.
Lyft stock rose 9.32% to $19.01 a share in the premarket trading session.
DoorDash posts record food-delivery orders; shares soar
Shares of DoorDash (DASH) also edged up in premarket hours, despite reporting a worse-than-expected Q2 loss on Thursday evening.
The online food delivery app announced a revenue figure that was higher than what Wall Street expected, and assured shareholders that its business remains healthy in spite of economic uncertainty.
DoorDash said total orders rose to 426 million, well above analysts’ forecast of 419 million.
Revenue came in at $1.6 billion, up 30% from $1.24 billion in the same period last year.
The company reported a loss 72 cents a share, up from a loss of 30 cents a share a year earlier.
Analysts has called for a loss of 21 cents a share and revenue of $1.52 billion.
As of writing, DoorDash stock was marked 11.25% higher to $90.51 a share.
