US Stock Futures Edge Lower Ahead of Friday's U.S. Jobs Report

New York (Oct 6)  Stock futures edged lower on Thursday in a quieter session ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report. S&P 500 futures were down 0.23%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 0.2%, and Nasdaq futures dropped 0.2%.

The jobs report for September, a snapshot of the labor market, has gained outsized significance for what it might mean for the Federal Reserve come December. Economists anticipate roughly 170,000 jobs to have been added to the U.S. economy in September, strong enough to signal a robust labor market. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.9%.

"We see few surprises that would derail the Fed's assessment of the labor market," said BNP Paribas analysts. "We expect the September report to confirm the Fed's view that the labor market is on solid footing and maintain our base-case scenario of a December rate hike."

A rate hike in December currently has a 55% likelihood, according to CME Group fed funds futures. Chances of a year-end hike increased after the Federal Open Market Committee punted on a September rise and said the case for a hike has strengthened.

Crude oil prices stabilized on Thursday after a rally a day earlier that pushed prices to their highest level in three months. Crude rallied after a weekly reading saw a fifth week of declines, bringing relief over domestic supply glut worries.

West Texas Intermediate crude was down 0.3% to $49.70 a barrel on Thursday.

Twitter (TWTR) tumbled more than 10% in premarket trading on reports Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google  and Walt Disney (DIS) would not make a bid for the social network. The companies, previously interested in Twitter, pulled out of the bidding process, according to Recode. The company is reportedly taking bids this week with Salesforce.com (CRM) , a frontrunner for an acquisition.

Source: TheStreet