All eyes on nonfarm payrolls
Stocks look set for a muted open on Friday, with May jobs report expected to be the highlight of today’s economic calendar as traders and economists seek further proof that U.S. jobs market is in the midst of a sustained recovery.
The report, due for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show that the U.S. added 650,000 jobs last month compared with April’s gain of 266,000. The rate of unemployment rate is projected to fall from 6.1% to 5.9%, according to data compiled by FactSet.
By 5:40 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow dropped 46 points, or 0.13% to 34,521. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures and S&P 500 futures were little changed.
Biden expands blacklist of Chinese firms prohibited from taking U.S. investment
President Joe Biden has expanded a list of Chinese companies that are off-limits to American investors because of their alleged links to the country’s defense and surveillance.
The White House late Thursday issued the update of to an order signed last year by former President Donald Trump that seeks to strengthen controls on investments in Chinese businesses that the Biden administration says are linked to Beijing’s military and surveillance efforts.
Biden’s executive order bans Americans from trading or owning any shares tied to 59 Chinese companies, including Huawei, China Mobile, SMIC, Zhonghang Electronic, China Unicom, China Telecom, Jiangxi Hongdu Aviation, and CNOOC. The order will go into effect August 2.
AMC tumbles after movie chain says it plans to sell more shares
Shares in AMC (NYSE: AMC) were sinking before the opening bell Friday after the company announced plans to sell 11.5 million shares of its stock through an open market program.
The movie-theater chain warned shareholders against purchasing them “unless you are prepared to incur the risk of losing all or a substantial portion of your investment.”
AMC said in filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to use the net proceeds from the sale “for general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment, refinancing, redemption or repurchase of existing indebtedness, acquisition of theatre assets, working capital or capital expenditures and other investments.”
AMC stock was down 7.93% to $47.27 a share in pre-market trading hours. The stock closed Thursday’s regular session with a loss of 20.40% to $51.34.
EU, UK investigating Facebook for antitrust violations
Meanwhile, European Union and United Kingdom antitrust regulators have opened dual probes into Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) to find out whether the company hurts competition in the digital advertising market by collecting and using data to compete unfairly against rival services.
“We will look in detail at whether this data gives Facebook an undue competitive advantage in particular on the online classified ads sector, where people buy and sell goods every day, and where Facebook also competes with companies from which it collects data,” the European Commission’s competition head Margrethe Vestager said in a statement early Friday.
Facebook said it would cooperate fully with both the EU and UK regulators to demonstrate that both investigations are “without merit.”
Shares of the social media giant were down less than a percent to $324.95 per share in the pre-market trading session on Friday.
