Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Friday, with investors in a “wait-and-see” mode ahead of the release of the jobs report.
The blue-chip Dow futures dropped 8 points, or 0.04%, by 6:55AM ET (11:55GMT), the S&P 500 futures slipped 1 point, or 0.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched up 2 points, or 0.05%.
Friday’s main event will arrive when the U.S. Labor Department releases its December nonfarm payrolls report at 8:30AM ET (13:30GMT).
The report will close out 2016 with markets already speculating on what fiscal policies incoming President Donald Trump will implement to spur growth and employment when he takes office on January 20.
The consensus forecast is that the data will show jobs growth of 175,000, following an increase of 178,000 in November, the unemployment rate is forecast to inch up to 4.7% from 4.6%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.3% after falling 0.1% a month earlier.
An upbeat employment report will point to an improving economy and support the case for higher interest rates in the coming months, while a weak report could add to uncertainty over the economic outlook and push prospects of tighter monetary policy further off the table.
Despite the fact that the Federal Reserve (Fed) forecast the potential for three rate hikes throughout 2017, markets remained skeptical, pricing in just two for this year.
Specifically, Fed fund futures put the odds of a third rate hike by next December at only 34.3%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
In currencies, the dollar recovered some lost territory on Friday after hitting a three-week low against major currencies.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.28% at 101.67 by 6:56AM ET (11:56GMT), after dropping overnight to as low as 101.300, its lowest since Dec. 14.
The index, which had set a 14-year high of 103.82 just three days ago was weakened overnight precisely due to weak reads on the U.S. labor market in a release from ADP which showed a disappointing creation of just 153,000 jobs and as a government reading on unemployment put continuing jobless claims at their highest level since the beginning of September.
With the dollar moving higher, gold gave back some of its recent rise, but was still on track to pocket weekly gains of more than 2%. At 6:57AM ET (11:57GMT), the precious metal was down 0.3% at $1,177.75.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher on Friday, as market players continued to weigh developments surrounding a landmark agreement between major oil producers to reduce crude output and looked ahead to a measure of production in the U.S.
Prices increased on Thursday following reports of supply cuts from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi coming into effect as part of efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers to curb a global supply glut this year.
Market players also looked ahead to data from Baker Hughes to be released later on Friday in order to gauge the increase in U.S. drilling activity.
Last week, the oilfield services provider said that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. increased by 2 to 525 in what was the ninth straight weekly rise and a level not seen in almost a year.
U.S. crude oil futures gained 0.67% to $54.12 at by 6:58AM ET (11:58GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.72% to $57.30.