US pre-open: Futures slightly higher ahead of nonfarm payrolls data

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Friday ahead of December's all-important non farm payrolls report.

As of 1220 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.04%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.20% and 0.34% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 170.64 points lower on Thursday, extending losses recorded in the previous session as fears over tighter monetary policy remained in focus and investors digested a number of key data points.

Friday's primary focus will be December's non farm payrolls and unemployment rate reports at 1330 GMT, with analysts expecting to see non farm payrolls to more than double to 422,000 and the unemployment rate slip from 4.2% to 4.1%.

Market participants will also be holding out for comments from Federal Reserve heads Mary Daly, Raphael Bostic and Thomas Barkin later in the day.

In the corporate space, GameStop shares surged after new broke that the company planned to venture into the crypto universe with investments in a marketplace for nonfungible tokens and digital currency partnership, while Starbucks shares were in the red after analysts at both RBC Capital Markets and Oppenheimer downgraded the coffee maker.

No major earnings were slated for release on Friday.