Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 177 points, or 0.5%. S&P 500 futures were 0.7% higher, while futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7%. October’s nonfarm payrolls report on Friday will give investors further clues about where the economy stands and how much work the central bank has ahead of it to reduce inflation. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected 205,000 jobs were added last month and forecast the jobless rate was steady at 3.5 percent. “They’re trying to crush demand, which makes tomorrow’s jobs number extremely important because if you get a good number of jobs in terms of things not getting worse on the jobs front, that really makes it a tough job for [the central bank] much more,” Guy Adami of Private Advisor Group told CNBC’s “Fast Money.” Friday’s jobs report will come after another lackluster session for Wall Street. The Dow on Thursday lost about 0.5%, while the S&P 500 fell 1%. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, lost 1.7%. Investors weighed the Fed’s latest rate hike of 0.75 percentage points, as well as comments from Chairman Jerome Powell that suggested a turnaround could be further away than traders expected. All the major averages are on track to end the week with losses. As of Thursday’s close, the Dow is down 2.62% and is set to end four weeks of gains. The S&P and Nasdaq are down 4.64% and 6.84%, respectively, on pace to snap two-week winning streaks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is also on track for its worst weekly performance since January 2022. Corporate earnings season continued, with mobile payments firm Block surging 13% after beating expectations. Carvana shares fell as it posted a bigger-than-expected loss. Investors are also expecting a third-quarter report from AMC Networks before Friday.
