Pacer ETFs president Sean O’Hara shares his stock picks including Pfizer and VMware.
U.S. equity futures were trading lower ahead of the release of the most anticipated economic report of the month.
The major futures indexes suggested a decline of 0.3% when trading begins on Wall Street.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
This week’s key economic report will be released Friday morning. That’s when the Labor Department is expected to say the U.S. economy added 550,000 new nonfarm jobs last month, slightly above October’s stronger-than-expected tally of 531,000. The unemployment rate is anticipated to fall 0.1 percentage point to 4.5%.
Friday morning will also see reports on services sector activity and factory orders.
JOBLESS CLAIMS CLIMB TO 220,000 FROM HALF-CENTURY LOW
In Europe, London’s FTSE added 0.1%, Germany’s DAX was flat and France’s CAC was off 0.1%.
Stocks were mostly higher in Asia on Friday after a broad rally on Wall Street as investors kept an eye on the spread of the new coronavirus variant and measures governments are taking to restrain it.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo regained lost ground, gaining 1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.1% and China’s Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9%.
CHINA’S DIDI TO LEAVE US STOCK MARKET AMID TECH CRACKDOWN
Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Global said Friday it will pull out of the New York Stock Exchange and shift its listing to Hong Kong as the ruling Communist Party tightens control over tech industries.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to require that U.S.-listed foreign stocks like Didi disclose their ownership structures and audit reports, which could lead to some of them being delisted.
In New York, Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing company Grab fell 20.5% in its market debut Thursday, following a $40 billion merger in a special purpose acquisition company deal.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 34639.79 | +617.75 | +1.82% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 4577.1 | +64.06 | +1.42% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 15381.319749 | +127.27 | +0.83% |
The S&P 500 rose 1.4% on Thursday, its biggest gain since mid-October, to 4,577.10. The Dow gained 1.8% to 34,639.79. The Nasdaq added 0.8% to 15,381.32, held back by a modest drop in Apple, which fell 0.6% after the iPhone maker reportedly warned suppliers that it is seeing weak demand ahead of the holiday season.
Travel-related companies, which got hammered earlier this week as worries about the new coronavirus variant swept markets, rebounded Thursday. American Airlines climbed 7%, while Delta Air Lines rose 9.3%. Cruise line operators Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line jumped 9.2% and 7.7%, respectively.
Boeing rose 7.5% after China’s aviation regulator cleared the airplane maker’s 737 Max to return to flying with technical upgrades.
U.S. crude oil prices rose after OPEC and allied oil-producing countries decided Thursday to stick to their plans to boost output via steady, modest monthly increases in oil releases, even as the omicron variant adds more uncertainty over the global economic recovery from the pandemic.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
In energy markets, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $1.60, or 2.4% to $68.10 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the standard for pricing international oils, gained $1.72, or 2.5% to $71.39 per barrel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.