Stock Futures Creep Higher Ahead of Critical Labor Snapshot

New York (Sept 2)  Stock futures crept higher on Friday morning as Wall Street sat in wait of a critical snapshot of the U.S. labor market.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.05%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.1%, and Nasdaq futures rose 0.15%.

The official jobs report for August, the most closely watched release of any month, will be under even more scrutiny ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting on Sept. 20-21. A blowout report could secure a rate hike as soon as this month.

"Investors are going to have to seriously consider the possibility of a September hike if we get a strong set of numbers on Friday," said Luke Bartholomew, investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management. "Everyone had largely discounted this scenario until now, so we might get a wobble in risk markets if the numbers are good. It could be one of those perverse situations where good economic news is bad for financial markets."
The chances of a September hike in interest rates currently sit at 24%, according to CME Group Fed funds futures. A December hike has greater odds at 42%.

Economists expect the pace of jobs growth in August to slow after blockbuster readings in June and July. Analysts at TD Securities expect 189,000 jobs to have been added to the U.S. economy, while the unemployment rate will dip to 4.8%. The U.S. economy added 255,000 jobs in July.

Lululemon (LULU) tumbled 9% after reporting in-line quarterly earnings and issuing a soft outlook. The yoga apparel chain earned an adjusted 38 cents a share, as analysts expected, while revenue of $514.5 million fell short of estimates. Third-quarter earnings guidance of 42 cents to 44 cents a share was on the weaker side of consensus. Chief Financial Officer Stuart Haselden said, "Traffic continued to be a headwind, and those headwinds extended into the third quarter."

Source: TheStreet