Wall Street Seen Opening On Cautious Note; Jobs Data In Focus

(RTTNews) - Subdued U.S. futures ahead of the crucial non-farm payroll data point to a somewhat cautious start for stocks on Wall Street Friday morning.

The Dow futures are up 0.11 percent, the S&P futures are edging up marginally, and the Nasdaq futures are lower by about 0.05 percent.

The Labor Department's jobs data for the month of July is due out at 8:30 AM ET.

The report is is expected to show employment increased by 250,000 jobs in July after jumping by 372,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.6 percent.

Shares of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) are down sharply in pre-market trades, reacting to chief executive David Zaslav's comments that the company is looking to introduce a free, ad-supported version of its streaming service

Stocks ended mixed on Thursday after turning in a relatively lackluster performance during trading. Despite the choppy trading, the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new three-month closing high.

Traders were reluctant to make significant moves, choosing to wait for the Labor Department's monthly jobs report.

While the Nasdaq rose 52.42 points or 0.4 percent to 12,720.58, the S&P 500 edged down 3.23 points or 0.1 percent to 4,151.94 and the Dow dipped 85.68 points or 0.3 percent to 32,726.82.

Asian stocks closed higher as investors awaited an update on the U.S. jobs market later in the day for clues on the pace of monetary policy tightening going ahead. Chinese shares rallied as tech companies jumped on expectations that the China-Taiwan standoff might increase global chip shortage. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index jumped 1.19 percent to 3,227.03.

European stocks are quite sluggish with investors looking for direction amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, and eyeing the non-farm payroll data from the U.S.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September are down $0.52 or 0.59 percent at $88.02 a barrel. Gold futures are down $3.00 or 0.2 percent at $1,803.90 an ounce.