Nasdaq futures increased in anticipation of the U.S. employment report for September, coinciding with a decline in oil prices and fluctuations in the 10-year Treasury yield. The three major U.S. stock indexes approached Friday with indications of weekly losses. Futures for the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average indicated increases of 0.7%, 0.4%, and 0.4%, respectively, in recent trading. As Friday approached, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite recorded declines of 1.7%, 1%, and 0.7% for the week, respectively, following a week of gains for all three indices. Yesterday, the S&P 500 led major indexes slightly higher to commence October and the fourth quarter of trading, while the 10-year Treasury yield retreated after reaching a 24-year peak.
Investors will direct their attention to the 8:30 a.m. release of the U.S. jobs report for September. Economists anticipate that 84,000 jobs were added during the month, a decrease from the 162,000 recorded in August. The unemployment rate was anticipated to hold steady at 4.1%. Ahead of the reading, traders saw a 22% likelihood that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates at its late-October meeting, down from a 64% likelihood seen one week ago. The 10-year Treasury yield, a critical benchmark for various interest rates such as those applicable to mortgages, corporate bonds, and other loans, recently stood at 5.24%, showing minimal variation from Thursday’s closing figure. The yield reached a new 24-year peak of almost 5.35% early yesterday. Oil prices experienced a decline on Friday, prompted by a report indicating that European Union nations had deliberated on a French initiative to release diesel supplies in response to pressure from the United States.
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined by 3.7%, settling at $89.45 per barrel, whereas front-month Brent crude futures, serving as the international benchmark, decreased by 2.6% to $99.65. In corporate news, Nike shares plunged 10% before the bell after the sneaker giant projected a bigger slide in sales this fiscal year than analysts anticipated. Following a report that Amazon was looking to offload $8 billion of advanced Nvidia chips to external investors in order to strengthen its balance sheet, shares of both Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech companies rose roughly 1% in premarket trading. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF pointed up 0.6%.
Shares of Broadcom advanced 1.5% following a report that the chip designer’s syndicate was starting to amass $60 billion of AI chip financing for Anthropic and other firms. Broadcom is a component of the iShares Semiconductor ETF, which rose 1.5% in early trading. Crypto-tied stocks such as MicroStrategy, Coinbase Global, Marathon Holdings, and Circle Internet Group experienced an increase of 2% or more as bitcoin surged to $86,300 from overnight lows of approximately $84,500. The U.S. dollar index, which monitors the value of the greenback relative to a selection of foreign currencies, experienced a decline of 0.2%, settling at 101.94. Gold futures increased by 0.2%, reaching a price of $4,210 per ounce.
