Futures Little Changed Ahead of Delayed January Jobs Report

Stock futures were little changed Wednesday ahead of the highly anticipated U.S. employment report for January, which is expected to provide insight on the job market as the economy’s trajectory remains uncertain.

Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were up 0.1% apiece, while Nasdaq 100 futures were fractionally lower.

Investors will be playing close attention to the jobs report, which was supposed to have been released last Friday but was delayed five days because of a partial government shutdown. Economists expect that U.S. employers added 55,000 jobs in January, up from 50,000 in December, and that the unemployment rate remained at 4.4%, a relatively low level by historical standards.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury—which impacts interest rates on a variety of consumer loans including mortgages—was below 4.14% ahead of the data release. The yield sank more than 6 basis points Tuesday to close below 4.15% after the December U.S. retail sales reading unexpectedly came in flat.

Yesterday, the blue-chip Dow ticked 0.1% higher to set its third straight closing record in addition to its latest intraday mark. However, it was the only major index to end the day higher, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq and benchmark S&P 500 closed down a respective 0.6% and 0.3% to snap two-session winning streaks.

S&P Global (SPGI) and Raymond James Financial (RJF) led S&P 500 decliners Tuesday with drops of nearly 10% and 9%, respectively, as worries about AI hit financial stocks, especially wealth-management firms. Recent announcements from companies building AI applications have lately shaken up stocks in those industries. Shares of both firms rebounded more than 1% in premarket trading.

Every Magnificent Seven stock finished lower yesterday except for Tesla (TSLA), which ended nearly 2% higher. Shares of the companies were mixed before the bell Wednesday, with none making a move in either direction by more than 0.5%.

In notable post-earnings moves, shares of Mattel (MAT) plummeted 30%, Lyft (LYFT) sank 17%, Moderna (MRNA) dropped 9%, Robinhood Markets (HOOD) retreated 8%, Humana (HUM) fell 4.5%, Ford Motor (F) gained 1%, and Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT) ticked higher. McDonald’s (MCD), T-Mobile US (TMUS), and Shopify (SHOP) were among big names slated to report results before the bell.

Bitcoin was trading near $66,700, down from overnight highs around $69,200. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of global currencies, slipped 0.2% to 96.57.

Gold futures rose 1.3% to $5,095 an ounce, while silver futures surged more than 5% to $84.65 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, were 1.4% higher to $64.85 a barrel.