November jobs report in focus
Wall Street looks set to open higher on Friday as investors await U.S. employment figures at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The report is forecast to show 187,000 net new jobs were added in November and the unemployment rate steady at 3.6%. Average hourly earnings are expected to jump 3% on a year-over-year basis.
At 5:20 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were up 63.5 points, or 0.23% to 27,741.5. The S&P 500 advanced 7.37 points, or 0.24% to 3,125.12 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a gain of 29.50 points, or 0.36% to 8,338.75.
China to exempt U.S. pork and soybeans imports from tariffs
Chinese officials announced early Friday that they could waive some U.S. soybeans and pork from tariffs, a sign that trade tensions between the two countries might be cooling.
“The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council is carrying out the exclusion of some soybeans, pork and other commodities based on applications from enterprises,” China’s finance ministry said in a press release.
China and the U.S. have been engaging in negotiations aimed at delivering a phase-one deal to diffuse a 16-month tariff war that has hampered global growth.
Since the start of the trade war, China has ramped up duties on U.S. pork from 12% to 72%. Tariffs on soybeans have been hiked from 3% to 33%.
Saudi Aramco pulls off the biggest IPO in history; raises $25.6 billion
Saudi Aramco on Thursday raised a record $25.6 billion, a figure that makes it the world’s biggest initial public offering to date ahead of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA)’s 25 billion IPO in 2014.
The massive state-run oil company offered 3 billion shares at 32 Saudi riyals ($8.53) apiece, the top of the range announced last month. That gives Aramco a market valuation of $1.7 trillion, easily surpassing Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) as the world’s most valuable listed company.
However, the $1.7 trillion falls short of the $2 trillion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had sought. Shares are expected to begin trading later this month on the Tadawul stock exchange.
