Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Friday as market players awaited the publication of June employment report.
The blue-chip Dow futures slipped 6 points, or 0.03%, at 6:40AM ET (10:40GMT), the S&P 500 futures inched up 1 point, or 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 12 points, or 0.21%.
The U.S. Labor Department will release its June nonfarm payrolls report at 8:30AM ET (1230GMT) on Friday.
The consensus forecast is that the data will show jobs growth of 179,000 this month, following an increase of 138,000 in May, the unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 4.3%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.3% after gaining 0.2% a month earlier.
Investors will pay particular attention to the strength of the report in order to evaluate the impact on the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) current plans to move forward with the removal of accommodative monetary policy.
The odds for a further rate hike this year have recently been hovering around the 50% threshold, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, coinciding with the Fed’s own projection that will not begin to reduce the $4.5 trillion balance sheet this year but also increase rates once more.
The dollar held onto modest gains against the other major currencies on Friday, as investors waited for the employment report.
The greenback’s strength took a small bite out of gold on Friday as a stronger dollar makes the precious metal more expensive for holders of foreign currency.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury was around one basis point higher at 2.378% by 6:42AM ET (10:42GMT), after closing up four basis points the prior session.
Also of note, the Fed will be releasing its semiannual monetary policy report to Congress at 11:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
Normally, the report was released at the same time as Fed chair Janet Yellen testifies to Congress which will take place next Wednesday. However, the central bank decided to pre-release the document in order to give both congressional representatives and the public time to digest the details ahead of Yellen’s testimony.
Meanwhile, oil tumbled around 3% on Friday as news of a rise in U.S. production added to earlier reports that OPEC output was also on the rise.
Despite an initially bullish response to a huge drop in U.S. crude oil inventories on Thursday, sentiment soured due to a 1% rise in weekly U.S. oil production to 9.34 million barrels per day (bpd). Since mid-2016, that's an increase of more than 1%.
U.S. crude futures sank 3.14% to $44.09 by 6:43AM ET (10:43GMT), while Brent oil sank 2.99% to $46.67.
Still ahead, and on the same topic of increasing shale production, investors will watch the latest weekly data on U.S. drilling activity from Baker Hughes out later on Friday.
In company news, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRKa) , said on Friday it would acquire Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC in a deal that puts Oncor's equity value at about $11.25 billion.
Elsewhere, European stocks traded mostly lower on Friday amid concerns over tighter monetary policy in Europe and as geopolitical tensions continued to weigh. Despite caution ahead of the U.S. jobs report, equities on the Old Continent were on track to close flat on the week. At 6:45AM ET (10:45GMT), the European benchmark Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.15%, Germany’s DAX fell 0.26%, and France’s CAC 40 shed 0.30%. London's FTSE 100 was an exception to the general rule, inching up 0.09%.
Earlier, Asian stocks were mostly lower on Friday after a weak session on Wall Street, though China’s Shanghai Composite managed to close with gains of 0.2%.