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Stock market news live updates: Stock futures wobble ahead of August jobs report

Alexandra Semenova · Reporter
Fri, September 2, 2022 at 5:48 AM · 3 min read

U.S. stock futures wavered Friday morning as investors buckled up for critical monthly employment data. ... The Labor Department is set to release its August jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 teetered just below the flatline after the benchmark index staged a major comeback in the prior trading session to reverse a drop of more than 1% and close firmly higher. ... Contracts on the Dow Industrial Average slipped slightly below breakeven after the index pared a 300-point loss Thursday to cap the day up 150 points. Futures tied to the Nasdaq Composite were off by 0.1%.

Government data is likely to show another month of strong hiring despite a streak of larger-than-anticipated rate hikes by Federal Reserve policymakers to cool economic growth in an effort to mitigate inflation. ... Nonfarm payrolls rose an estimated 300,000 in August, according to data from Bloomberg. In July, the economy added a whopping 528,000 jobs. Still, monthly job gains would remain robust on a historical basis if the estimate is realized, as monthly payroll gains averaged about 164,000 per month in 2019.

Investors will be laser-focused on Friday’s data after Fed Chair Jerome Powell asserted in a hawkish speech at the Jackson Hole symposium last week that he is willing to accept weaker labor conditions in exchange for cooling prices.

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