The U.S. Labor Department will release its August nonfarm payrolls report at 12:30GMT on Friday.
1. Labor market strength may determine Fed rate hike timing
The U.S. Labor Department will release its August nonfarm payrolls (NFP) report at 12:30GMT on Friday.
The consensus forecast is that the data will show jobs growth of 180,000, following an increase of 255,000 in July, the unemployment rate is forecast to dip 0.1% to 4.8%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2% after gaining 0.3% a month earlier.
An upbeat employment report will point to an improving economy and support the case for higher interest rates in the coming months, while a weak report would add to uncertainty over the economic outlook and push prospects of tighter monetary policy further off the table.
As traders await the release, Fed fund futures put the probability of a rate hike in September at 24%.
November odds were at 30.3%, while the December meeting breached the 50% threshold at 56.9%.
2. Lacker could be first Fed official to comment on jobs
Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Richmond president Jeffrey Lacker will be the first policy maker to have a chance to comment on the Friday’s jobs report.
Lacker was scheduled to speak on interest rate benchmarks at 17:00GMT.
Prior to the appearance, market participants will also digest July factory orders at 14:00GMT.
3. Oil on track for biggest weekly loss since mid-January
Oil achieved slight gains on Friday as investors appeared to place hopes on comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would like to reach an agreement on an output freeze with OPEC that would allow Iran to return output to pre-sanction levels.
Crude’s cautious advance on Friday snapped a four-day losing streak that was headed to be the largest weekly drop in prices in almost eight months.
Oil chalked up losses this week amid increasing skepticism among traders that major oil producers would agree to freeze production at a meeting in Algeria later this month.
Investors also looked ahead to the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count data for the latest week.
The number of rigs operating in the U.S. in the prior week was unchanged at 406, after having risen eight straight weeks in a row.
U.S. crude oil futures gained 0.49% to $43.37 8:58AM GMT, while Brent oil rose 0.70% to $45.77.
4. Global stocks show cautious trade ahead of U.S. data
Asian stock markets wobbled on Friday as market participants awaited U.S. job data later in the day to gauge its impact on the timing of the next Fed rate hike.
European stocks moved higher on Friday as investors awaited a U.S. employment report due later in the day and as a rebound in oil prices lent support the energy sector.
U.S. futures traded close to unchanged in cautious early morning trade ahead of the jobs report. At 8:58AM GMT, the blue-chip Dow futures inched up 8 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 futures was unchanged, and the Nasdaq 100 futures rose 5 points, or 0.10%.
5. Trading in Chinese yuan doubles in 3 years
The yuan’s share of global currency trading has doubled in the three years up to April 2016, according to a triennial central bank survey released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released late Thursday.
According to the report, the average daily turnover in the Chinese currency rose to $202 billion last April, compared to $120 billion in the same month of 2013.
That doubled its ratio of global foreign-exchange trading to 4% from 2%.
The survey further noted that CNY/USD became the sixth most traded currency pair compared to its position in ninth place three years earlier.