U.S. stocks futures gained on Friday with investors keenly anticipating Labor Department’s monthly nonfarm payrolls data, scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST, on Friday.
Economists’ consensus estimate is for 160,000 new job additions January. In December, nonfarm payrolls rose by 155,000. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 7.8%.
At last check, futures on Dow Jones Industrial Average Index gained 0.38%; those on NASDAQ 100 added 0.26% while futures on S&P 500 Index edged up 0.27%
In some other U.S. economic news, Markit flash January purchasing managers index (PMI) is scheduled to be released at 9 a.m. Eastern, followed by the Institute of Supply Management’s ( ISM )January factory index at 10 a.m.
The University of Michigan’s final consumer sentiment reading for the month of January is slated to be released 9:55 a.m. Economists are expecting the reading rising slightly to 71.5 from a preliminary reading of 71.3.
Later at 10 a.m. Eastern, a data on construction spending for December is due with economists expecting it to rise by 0.8%, after falling unexpectedly 0.3% in November.
Two oil industry’s heavy-weights Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) are scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Friday.
Toy maker Mattel Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) edged down in premarket trading after it reported weaker than expected fiscal fourth quarter results.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) rallied 7% in premarket trading after sources familiar with the matter said that Dell Inc was nearing to sell itself to an investment consortium led by founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners.
NetSuite Inc (NYSE: N) leaped nearly 7% in premarket trading after the cloud computing service provider late on Thursday reported better than expected adjusted earnings and revealed its aggressive growth strategy for fiscal 2013.
In Asia, equities ended mainly higher with Nikkei edging up 0.47%.
Elsewhere in Europe, equities were mainly higher with Pan European Stoxx 600 gaining 0.22%, FTSE 100 up 0.38% while DAX tacking higher 0.25%.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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