US stock indexes hit round-number milestones
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, June 6, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock futures edged lower on Friday amid caution ahead of the closely watched nonfarm payrolls report, which is likely to provide clues on how soon the Federal Reserve will begin to ease back on its stimulus efforts.
* Stocks have mostly declined this week ahead of the jobs report. Investors fret that if the report is stronger than expected, the Fed may slow down its bond-buying program, which has fed a rally in the U.S. equity market this year.
* A pickup in market volatility over the past couple of weeks reflects investors’ concerns over the longevity of the Fed’s stimulus program and over a still-sluggish global economy.
* The Labor Department will release the May employment report at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). U.S. employers likely stepped up hiring only slightly in May, a sign the economy was growing modestly but not strongly enough to convince the Federal Reserve to scale back the amount of cash it is pumping into the banking system.
* S&P 500 futures fell 0.9 points and were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures lost 26 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 4.5 points.
* U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, with the Dow swinging nearly 200 points between the session low and high, and the S&P 500 recovering after hitting a key technical level in volatile trading a day before the release of the U.S. jobs report.
* The S&P 500 is up about 13 percent so far this year, after repeatedly hitting record highs. Those gains were triggered in part by the belief the Fed’s stimulus would remain in place.
* Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is optimistic that sales at its U.S. stores will recover from recent sluggishness to grow in the second half of the year, in part because shoppers are getting more confident, company executives said late Thursday.
* Apple shares may be in the spotlight after its rival Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) lost $ 12 billion in market value on Friday, hit by brokerage downgrades spurred by concern about slowing sales of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone.
* George Soros’s firm, Soros Fund Management, which manages $ 24 billion of the investor’s cash, sold much of its Japanese stock position in May, before the recent, steep sell-off, according to a person close to the matter.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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