S&P 500 futures are flat ahead of key jobs report

Stock futures were little changed on Friday following a rally on Wall Street as investors await a key jobs report Friday.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat, while S&P 500 futures dipped about 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures slipped nearly 0.5%.

The action in futures followed a winning session Thursday in which the S&P 500 posted a four-day positive streak, matching its longest of the year thus far. The index is now down about 19% from its all-time high in January.

The June employment report due on Friday is expected to show another month of strong hiring as the labor market bucks any signs of an impending recession or economic slowdown. Economists expect that the U.S. economy added 250,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate will remain flat at 3.6%, according to Dow Jones.

In May, employers added 390,000 jobs, which was better than economists expected.

“With the set up of a tough Fed on the basis of wanting to aggressively tame inflation with the comfort of a strong labor market … today’s number is especially relevant,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Financial Group, said in a note Friday morning. “If the unemployment rate starts to rise from here, I expect the Fed’s tough talk to be tempered in the months to come.”

The S&P 500 is up about 2% during this holiday-shortened week, and it’s on pace for its second positive week in the last three.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite are up 0.92% and 4.4% this week, respectively. Both indexes are also on track for their second positive week in the last three.

Shares of Levi Strauss gained more than 3% in the premarket after the retailer reported quarterly earnings that exceeded expectations and boosted its dividend.

GameStop fell about 6% in premarket trading as the company fired its chief financial officer and said it would lay off employees as part of a turnaround plan. The stock notched a 15% gain in the prior session after the video game retailer announced a 4-for-1 stock split.

Energy stocks led gains during Thursday’s trading, as the price of oil reversed from a recent dip. Exxon Mobil climbed nearly 3.2%, while Occidental Petroleum added close to 4%. Chipmakers boosted the tech sector after strong earnings from Samsung.

“You just don’t see the capitulation just yet, I think there’s a little bit more that needs to happen between now and the July Fed meeting,” Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Thursday. He added that stocks could pull back as early as Friday’s session.