Early on Friday, as traders awaited the release of the jobs report, U.S. stock futures modestly increased.
27 points, or 0.1%, were added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures. Both the Nasdaq 100 futures and the S&P 500 futures increased by 0.1%.
Many market investors are expecting that a relatively milder jobs data will end the bond yield fever, which has been weighing on equities and causing bond rates to increase rapidly. This week, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note increased to a 16-year high of 4.884%. The last time it was above 4.7%.
On Thursday’s “Closing Bell” on CNBC, Joe Terranova, senior managing director of Virtus Investment Partners, stated that the bond market is volatile. “Therefore, whether positive or negative, tomorrow’s jobs report will significantly influence which direction the market will move. Because fixed income is moving in such a volatile manner right now, which is a bad situation for investors to be in.
This week, the Dow turned negative for the year and is on pace to post losses for a third straight week. The 30-stock index is down 1.16 percent as of Thursday’s closing price. With a decline of 0.7%, the S&P 500 is on track for its fifth straight week of losses. The Nasdaq is essentially flat.
Source (CNBC)
