U.S. stock futures edge higher ahead of March jobs report; regular trading closed for Good Friday

Need to Know: Why the jobs report will be important, even if no one is around to trade it

Major stock index benchmarks, meanwhile, wrapped up a holiday-shortened week on Thursday, with the S&P 500 SPX, +1.18% finishing above the 4,000 milestone for the first time. The S&P saw a 1.2% weekly gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.52% rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.76% advanced 2.6%.

See: Friday’s jobs report will be released to a closed stock market—that’s only occurred 12 times since 1980

U.S. equity futures will close at 9:15 a.m. Eastern, just 45 minutes after the release of the March jobs report from the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, on average, estimated the report will show 675,000 new jobs were created in March, with some economists looking for the figure to top 1 million.

Read: Is the stock market open Good Friday? Here are the exchanges closed on the holiday and on Easter Monday

An employment report that tops estimates “could still be seen as ‘good news is bad news,’ i.e. that the speed of recovery may now prompt the Fed to taper QE earlier than they would have previously done,” said technical analyst Ed Matts, founder of Matrixtrade.com, in a note. “This would result in an instant (unsustained) spike in Treasury yields and pullback in stocks.”

U.S. Treasury debt trading will be open for the jobs report, with Sifma advising a noon close for cash trade in bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 1.695% was down less than 1 basis point at 1.678%.

Also see: Easter holiday schedule could leave bond traders vulnerable on a blockbuster jobs day