June 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set to open higher on Friday after a strong jobs report calmed worries over the health of the labor market, while Tesla shares rebounded on signs of cooling tensions between CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Data showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 139,000 in May, beating forecasts for a rise of 130,000 jobs, according to economists polled by Reuters. The unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, in line with expectations.
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"Things are slowing, but they're not collapsing and that's the good news. We're not seeing a serious degradation of the jobs market," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.The payrolls data comes after a slew of soft economic data this
week that has raised concerns about an economic slowdown caused by trade uncertainties.
Traders currently expect two rate cuts by the end of this year, with the first 25 basis-point cut seen in September, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA.O), rose 4.1% in premarket trading after plunging about 15% on Thursday following Trump's public feud with Musk, including threats to cut off government contracts with Musk's companies.
Tesla shed about $150 billion in market value on Thursday, weighing on Wall Street indexes. White House aides scheduled a call between Trump and Musk for Friday, Politico reported, likely to ease the feuding after an extraordinary day of hostilities.
But the electric carmaker's stock briefly pared gains after a White House official told Reuters there were no plans for a call on Friday.
On Thursday, investors also took stock of a leader-to-leader call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they confronted after weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals. The leaders, however, left key issues unresolved for future talks.
U.S. equities rallied sharply in May, with the S&P 500 index (.SPX), and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC), scoring their biggest monthly percentage gains since November 2023, thanks to softening of Trump's harsh trade stance and upbeat earnings reports.
The S&P 500 remains nearly 3.3% below record highs touched in February.
At 8:49 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 290 points, or 0.68%, S&P 500 E-minis were higher 46.25 points, or 0.78%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis gained 183 points, or 0.85%.
Most megacap and growth stocks rose in early trading. Shares of Amazon (AMZN.O), advanced 2.2%.
Broadcom (AVGO.O), shares fell 2.4% after the networking and custom AI chipmaker's quarterly revenue forecast failed to impress investors.
Lululemon (LULU.O), shares lost 18.9% as the sportswear maker cut its annual profit target, citing higher costs from Trump's tariffs.
Shares of virtual document signing platform DocuSign (DOCU.O), fell 19% after first-quarter results.
Fed Governor Michelle Bowman is scheduled to speak at 10:00 a.m. ET.
Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel
