US stock index futures rose in a holiday-shortened session after a solid jobs report in March, although investors won’t fully digest the data until next week as spot trading in equities is closed for the Good Friday holiday.
Trading in stock index futures ended at 9:15 am Eastern. Stock index futures will resume trading at their regular 6:00 p.m. time on Sunday as US markets return to normal trading hours on Monday.
What stock index futures do
- Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
YM00
rose 64 points, or 0.2%, to 33,723.
- S&P 500 futures
ES00
rose 9.75 points, or 0.2%, to 4,141.75.
- Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00
rose 13.50 points, or 0.1%, to 13,184.25.
With the exception of Dow industrials, US stocks ended the holiday-shortened week lower on Thursday after the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted three straight weekly gains. the dow
DJIA
rose 0.6% this week, during the S&P 500
SPX
lost 0.1% and the Nasdaq
COMP
tumbled 1.1% after posting its best quarter since 2020.
market leader
The US added 236,000 jobs in March, defying Federal Reserve hopes of a sharp slowdown in hiring and potentially making it harder for the central bank to tame inflation. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast 238,000 new jobs.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%. Wages rose 0.3% last month.
“This month’s report shows that rate hikes are yet to have an impact on the tight jobless situation,” said Steve Rick, chief economist at CUNA Mutual Group, in emailed comments.
Treasury yields rose and the dollar strengthened, although traders noted conditions were poor due to the holiday. Fed fund futures showed traders pricing in a nearly 70% chance that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by a quarter point in May and a roughly 30% chance that policymakers will leave rates unchanged. Traders had seen a split of around 50:50 on Thursday.
“Today’s jobs report is consistent with a slowly evolving recession in the US and one that does not point to an immediate resolution to inflation concerns,” said Jason Pride, chief investment officer of Glenmede’s Private Wealth, in a statement. “Hence, the chances of another quarter-point rate hike in May should increase as the data doesn’t seem to warrant a Fed pause.”
However, policymakers and investors will see a wealth of data ahead of the next Fed meeting, including next week’s CPI, Pride noted.
See: Jobs report ‘likely to set the tone for another rate hike in May’ – economists react to March release
Good Friday is a market holiday, but not a US federal holiday. That means the US Department of Labor released its March jobs report as usual. Bond traders will see half a day of trading, with Sifma recommending a midday ET close to allow for a reaction to the data.
Read: Why Good Friday complicates how stock traders will digest March jobs report
Investors have seen a stream of jobs-related data over the past week. Data on Tuesday showed the number of job vacancies in the US slipping below 10 million to a 21-month low, suggesting a hot job market could be starting to sizzle.
ADP said on Wednesday the private sector added 145,000 jobs in March, far below the 210,000 expected by economists. Weekly jobless claims data Thursday morning showed initial jobless claims came in higher than expected last week.
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