Strong data on jobs should boost Wall Street's opening By Reuters

By Sruthi Shankar and Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) – US stock index futures advanced on Friday, as job growth in April reflected a strong national economy, while sustained wage growth was confirming the company 's growth. 39, the Federal Reserve's patient opinion on interest rate hikes.

The Ministry of Labor's monthly employment report indicates that the number of jobs rose by 263,000 last month, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast an increase of 185,000. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, its lowest level in 49 years.

However, average hourly earnings rose 0.2% in April, following a similar increase in March and below the expected 0.3% increase.

The report generally supported the decision taken earlier this week by the US central bank to keep interest rates unchanged. President Jerome Powell's comments on the weakness of inflation, considered essentially "transitory", have also lowered operator bets on a rate cut this year.

"Stock volatility is a bit reasonable given that the overall numbers were quite surprising and very positive in this environment," said Charlie Ripley, Senior Market Strategist at Allianz (DE 🙂 Investment Management in Minneapolis.

"It really reiterates Powell's message Wednesday, namely that the economy is really fit and that inflation is low and that there is no need to change the policy for the moment."

At 8:59, ET was up 144 points, or 0.55%. were up 15.5 points, or 0.53% and up 61.75 points, or 0.8%.

The main Wall Street indexes have lost their records in the last two sessions, after the Fed wiped out its hopes of lowering interest rates this year and oil prices have fallen.

To date, more than 350 companies have published reports and three-quarters have exceeded their earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data. The better than expected results meant that the estimated earnings for the first quarter reached 0.7%, after falling 2% in early April.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ 🙂 reported a 2.6% increase in sales before the purchase, after CNBC announced that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE 🙂 Inc. had bought shares in the company for the first time. retail giant on the Internet, although it was not he who bought it.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ 🙂 fell 0.6%, following expectations from its other network hardware manufacturer Arista Networks Inc. for the coming quarter.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ 🙂 fell 2.4% after the video game maker reported lower than expected earnings for the current quarter, as it is investing more in its franchises to fight the competition.

Actions of Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 also fell 0.7% after broker MKM Partners downgraded its shares from "neutral" to "bought".