Wall Street to open higher on robust jobs data; banks up

Reuters
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - Wall Street looked set to rise at the open on Friday after a much better-than-expected nonfarm payrolls data underscored a strong labor market, while bank shares added to the potential upside.

Hiring in the private and public sectors in the United States in January rose to 227,000 as construction firms and retailers ramped up hiring, compared with 175,000 that economists had expected according to a Reuters poll.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.8 percent, while average hourly earnings increased three cents, or 0.1 percent, last month.

Bank stocks were up in premarket trading as President Donald Trump prepared to scale back the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

Shares of big U.S. banks rose also ahead of a meeting of top management with Trump. Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were up more than 1.5 percent.

Dow e-minis were up 82 points, or 0.41 percent at 8:32 a.m. ET (1332 GMT), with 24,816 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.34 percent, with 141,792 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.21 percent, on volume of 24,677 contracts.

Wall Street ended little changed on Thursday as Trump's policy plans remained sketchy, nearly two weeks after he took office.

Still, the indexes are not far away from their record levels, and the nonfarm payrolls report and further clarity on bank regulatory reforms could act as catalysts for the market after weeks of range-bound trading.

Other data vying for attention include the ISM non-manufacturing index report, which is likely to indicate continued strength in U.S. services sector activity. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans is scheduled to speak at 9:15 a.m. ET. Evans, a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting meeting, could provide insight on when the central bank expects to raise interest rates, after it stood pat on Wednesday.

Among stocks, Dow component Visa rose 4.2 percent to $85.75 following quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts' expectations.

Amazon.com fell 4.34 percent to $803.50 after the world's largest online retailer forecast a surprise dip in operating profit for the current quarter.

Apparel and footwear maker Deckers Outdoor dropped 21 percent to $43.87 after missing quarterly revenue estimates.

Cybersecurity firm FireEye reported its first-ever drop in quarterly revenue on Thursday, sending its shares down nearly 19 percent.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)