Stock futures rose in early trading Friday, despite a disappointing November jobs report, as the market nears the end of a roller-coaster week driven by Covid omicron variant developments.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 100 points. S&P 500 futures rose 0.35% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5%.
November’s jobs report showed slower-than-expected job creation last month. Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 210,000 for the month, well below the 573,000 jobs predicted by economists polled by Dow Jones.
However, the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.2%, better than estimates of 4.5%.
“It is unsettling to see that we were unable to build on October’s strong numbers, with uncertainty only set to increase as the winter progresses,” said Steve Rick, Chief Economist at CUNA Mutual Group. “That said, it is not completely surprising that this month fell short with the country preparing to respond to the COVID-19 Omicron variant and continuing to battle rising inflation and the ongoing supply chain crisis.”
Technology stocks popped in premarket trading as bond yields fell following the jobs report. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield hovered below 1.44% on Friday. Meta Platforms rose 1% and Microsoft popped nearly 1%.
Vaccine leader Moderna was among the biggest gainers, with its shares rising 6% in premarket trading.
Stocks tied closely to the virus have led the market on its week-long seesaw, and that continued Friday. Companies that benefit from the economic expansion, such as hotels and airlines, led losers. Hilton Worldwide was off 1.4% and Delta Air Lines fell 1.2% premarket.
Elsewhere in markets, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi announced during Asia trading hours on Friday that it will start delisting from the New York Stock Exchange and make plans to list in Hong Kong instead. Shares fell 4% in premarket trading.
The omicron variant has now been detected in five U.S. states, with symptoms so far reported as mild.
The three major indexes rebounded in Thursday’s regular trading session. The Dow gained 617 points. The S&P 500 rose 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8%.
Thursday’s gains continues a highly volatile streak for stocks as the market digests what the new variant means. The Dow is down 0.7% for the week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have lost nearly 0.4% and 0.7% since Monday, respectively.
