Day Ahead: Top 3 Things to Watch

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Investing.com - Here's a preview of the top 3 things that could rock markets tomorrow.

1. It's Jobs Friday!

Labor market numbers over the past few days have done little to instill confidence. The private sector jobs growth for September fell short of estimates. Initial jobless claims climbed to a one-year high. But it could all turn around on Friday, with the release of nonfarm payrolls at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 PM GMT.)

Economists forecast that the U.S. economy created about 140,000 jobs in last month, up from 130,000 in August, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 3.7%.

Some on Wall Street, however, are expecting a lower nonfarm payroll print and have pointed fingers at slowing employment growth in the services sector.

“We forecast a below-trend 125,000 increase in nonfarm payroll employment during September, likely driven by another weak month of service employment growth,” Nomura said in a recent email.

Wage growth, meanwhile, is expected to slow to a pace of 0.3% from 0.4% a month earlier, though remain steady at 3.2% year on year.

Trade data will also be focus, with the U.S. trade deficit expected to have widened to $54.50 billion in August from 54 billion in July.

2. Oil Rig Count Rolls In

The latest rig count data due Friday will offer clues on the pace of domestic crude production, which has remained at near-record highs at 12.4 million barrels a day.

Data last week showed the number of oil rigs operating in the U.S. fell by 6 to 713.

The weekly rig count is an important barometer for the drilling industry and serves as a proxy for oil production and oil services demand.

Crude oil prices fell 19 cents to settle at $52.45 on Thursday amid ongoing fears that slowing global economic growth will weigh on oil demand.

3. Fed's Powell Takes to the Stage

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver opening remarks at the Fed Listens event in Washington, where the topic will be “Perspectives on Maximum Employment and Price Stability.”

The speech comes as the odds of an October Fed rate cut have topped 90%, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool, following a spate of underwhelming U.S. economic data, including a lower-than-expected non-manufacturing ISM report on Thursday.

"The risk raised by the downside in today's ISM non-manufacturing report is that the service sector may be decelerating, pointing to a potential inflection in what has been to-date one of the key pillars of US economic growth," Morgan Stanley said in a note.