Dow Futures Rise 200 Pts; Monthly Jobs Report in Focus
01 Apr 2022
DOW JONES is trading down 1.56% at 34678.36
U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Friday, starting a new quarter on a positive note ahead of the release of the much-anticipated monthly official jobs report.
At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 200 points, or 0.6%, S&P 500 Futures traded 25 points, or 0.6%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 100 points, or 0.7%.
The main Wall Street indices closed sharply lower Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broad-based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite all closing down more than 1.5%.
The three major averages posted their worst quarter since March 2020, with the Dow and S&P 500 declining 4.6% and 4.9% and the Nasdaq dropping more than 9%, as a hawkish Federal Reserve and soaring consumer prices raised fears of a sharp economic slowdown.
The major attention Friday will be on the nonfarm payrolls release for March at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT), which is expected to show further signs of an improvement in the labor market, providing the Federal Reserve with more leeway to be more aggressive with its tightening cycle.
Analysts expect an increase of 490,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate falling to 3.7%, suggesting the central bank can continue attempting to combat inflation without the fear of hurting the economy too severely.
On technical fronts DOW JONES RSI stood at 59.80 and currently it is trading above 20 and 50 days MA & below 5 days MA. So, BUY position can be taken with following target and stoploss: