Jobs report in focus
U.S. stock futures were trading lower early Friday as traders awaited the release of the employment report for May, which could provide clues on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy outlook for the second half of the year.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal say employment gains in the U.S. labor market likely slowed in May to 328,000 jobs from 428,000 jobs in April. The rate of unemployment is forecast to fall to 3.5% from 3.6%.
The Labor Department will publish the report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were marked 78 points, or 0.23% lower to 33,145.
S&P 500 futures gave away 14 points, or 0.34% to 4,161.25 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 72 points, or 0.56% to 12,821.75.
Crude slides as OPEC+ hikes supply
In energy markets, crude futures edged up on Friday morning after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, announced a higher-than-expected production hike.
OPEC+ said Thursday that it plans to raise oil production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to hurt the global energy market.
The cartel had previously planned increases of about 400,000 barrels per day.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down $1.03, or 0.88% to $115.84 a barrel. Global Brent crude futures fell 89 points, or 0.765 to $116.72 a barrel.
Elon Musk has a “super bad feeling” about the economy
Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) boss Elon Musk is looking to slash about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker, according to a Reuters report.
Musk told Tesla executives he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and that the company needs to reduce its workforce by around 10%, according to an internal email seen by the news outlet.
Tesla has approximately 100,000 employees worldwide, according to its annual filing with the SEC.
The email with the subject line “pause all hiring worldwide,” came two days after he told Tesla executives that remote work was no longer acceptable and ordered all of them to work from the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week.
Tesla stock dropped 4.19% to $742.50 a share in premarket trading on Friday.
