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U.S. job growth beats expectations, wage growth slows
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SVB shares halted for news pending
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Gap falls on downbeat forecast
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Futures up: Dow 0.17%, S&P 0.45%, Nasdaq 0.71%
(Updates prices, adds payrolls data and comment)
By Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar A
March 10 (Reuters) -
U.S. stock indexes were set to open higher on Friday as
concerns over aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve
ebbed after data showed signs of cooling wage inflation and a
rise in the unemployment rate in February.
While the closely watched non-farm
payrolls report showed the U.S. economy added jobs at a solid pace in February, average hourly earnings rose 0.2% last month after gaining 0.3% in January, while the unemployment rate rose to 3.6% last month.
The data had been a focus area for markets concerned about aggressive interest rate hikes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish remarks earlier this week, as any cooling in the labor market could persuade the Fed to ease their monetary policy approach.
A separate report on Thursday showed a sharp rise in jobless claims, which had also buoyed hopes of the Fed softening its monetary policy stance.
"The headline number beat expectations, but the details are what's much more important and perhaps encouraging to those who think that the Fed doesn't need to do a 50 basis point hike," said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investments.
"There's not a lot of evidence that wages are spiraling
out of control It means that maybe the Fed would be comfortable
doing 25 basis points at their next meeting."
Wall Street's main indexes had recorded steep losses in the previous session after startups-focused lender SVB Financial Group's share sale to shore up its balance sheet wiped out more than $80 billion in value from bank shares.
Trading in shares of SVB was halted on Friday after falling
over 40% before the bell.
Shares of its peers First Republic Bank , Comerica
Inc , and Signature Bank were down between 3%
and 20%.
All three major U.S. indexes are headed towards weekly
losses as Fed Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week left open
the possibility of a large rate hike at the Fed's March meeting,
after the central bank dialed down the size of its rate hike
last month.
At 8:54 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 56 points, or
0.17%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 17.75 points, or 0.45%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 85.75 points, or
0.71%.were up 85.75 points, or 0.71%
Among other stocks, Gap Inc fell 8% in premarket
trading after the apparel maker posted a bigger-than-expected
fourth-quarter loss and forecast full-year sales below Wall
Street estimates.
Oracle Corp slid 4.4% after the software firm
missed third-quarter revenue estimates, while Caterpillar Inc slipped 1.4% after UBS downgraded the equipment maker to
"sell" from "neutral".
DocuSign dropped 13.6% as the digital document
signing tool provider forecast first-quarter revenue below
estimates and announced its chief financial officer's exit.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar in Bengaluru
Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
