US pre-open: Futures flat ahead of key jobs report

Wall Street futures were pointing to a broadly flat open ahead of the bell on Friday as market participants patiently awaited a key jobs report.

As of 1100 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.09%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.02% and 0.04% softer, respectively.

The Dow closed 85.68 points lower on Thursday amid a flurry of corporate earnings.

Friday's primary focus will be last month's nonfarm payrolls report at 1330 BST, with economists expecting the US to have added 250,000 jobs in July, down from 372,000 in June, while the unemployment rate was predicted to have held steady at 3.6%.

Markets.com's Neil Wilson said: "Today's July payrolls are expected to see 250k jobs added, which coincidentally was the forecast for June, which was beaten quite comfortably. It will still be the lowest number this year, however the strength of the labour market may well be starting to increase in the level of importance when it comes to how aggressive the Fed is likely to be when it comes to tackling inflation.

"Given the shift in emphasis in this week's comments from Fed policymakers the better the number will likely determine how aggressive the Fed is likely to be when it comes to tackling inflation with the phrase 'front-loading' being used quite a lot. A weak jobs number could temper the Fed's hawkishness, but it would have to be a shockingly low number, or even negative."

Elsewhere on the macro front, consumer credit change numbers for June will follow at 2000 BST.

In the corporate space, Goodyear Tire & Rubber will report earnings before the opening bell.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com