All eyes on August jobs report
The U.S. Department of Labor will release the nonfarm payrolls report for August at 8:30 a.m. ET today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the American economy to have added 160,000 jobs last month, versus a gain of 164,000 in July.
The unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 3.7% while average hourly earnings are expected to increase 0.3%.
Analysts believe that a weak jobs report is likely to force policymakers at the Federal Reserve to trim benchmark rates this month for the second time since December 2008.
Stocks poised to rise at open
U.S. stock index futures were higher on Friday as market participants awaited the August jobs report. At 5:29 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were up 98 points, or about 0.37% to 26,799.00.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a gain of 24 points, or roughly 0.31% to 7,879.50 while the S&P 500 futures rose 11.38 points, or around 0.38% to 2,983.38.
Some of the stocks to keep an eye on today include Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU), DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU), and Crowdstrike (NASDAQ: CRWD).
Alibaba acquires e-commerce platform Kaola from NetEase for $2 billion
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has agreed to acquire Kaola, a cross-border e-commerce platform owned by NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES). The deal, which was announced by the two companies on Friday, will create the largest cross-border e-commerce platform in China.
Alibaba will pay about $2 billion to acquire the unit. The Chinese e-commerce giant is also expected to take a minority stake in NetEase Cloud Music. Kaola will continue operating independently under its own brand with Tmall Import and Export General Manager, Alvin Liu, serving as its chief executive officer.
Alibaba’s shares were up less than 1% early Friday in New York.
