Pre-Markets News: Higher Open Likely For US Markets, Oil Price Flat

Higher open likely for the U.S. markets Friday, after the main U.S. stock index futures, looked higher on Friday morning as investors awaited the important data of non-farm payroll numbers or US jobs data coming during the day.

At 7:32 a.m. ET. Dow Jones futures showed a positive open of 63 points. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 also looked higher.

Market mood has turned buoyant after the U.S. and China decided to resume talks in October.

The U.S. private payrolls came out strong on Wednesday showing good growth in the four months in August.

This doused the pessimism that the decade-long economic expansion is dithering.

The August nonfarm payroll and unemployment data will be released at 08:30 a.m. ET and project the U.S economy’s current health.

“We forecast US non ‑ farm payrolls gains of 150k in August (consensus: 160k) in today’s labor market report, but they now appear upside risks to the number,” said Richard Grace, chief currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in a note.

In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 traded 0.16 percent higher during early trade, with sectors and major bourses pointing in opposite directions.

Oil price flat

Oil prices held steady on Friday with crude benchmarks making multi-week gains. The slump in U.S. crude inventories from heavy drawdown had lent some support to prices.

Brent crude fell by 3 cents at $60.92 a barrel by 0850 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped 10 cents at $56.20 a barrel.

“If trade tensions escalate further, oil demand growth may soften, even more, requiring much lower prices,” commented Giovanni Staunovo, an oil analyst for UBS over oil market trends in 2020.

There seems to be no getting away from lingering demand-side concerns, commented Stephen Brennock of oil brokerage PVM.

Asian markets up

Asia markets jumped Friday, according to stock market news, ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payroll numbers data.

Mainland Chinese stocks were up Friday. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.46 percent. Hong Kong’s stock market index Hang Seng jumped 0.56 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.54 percent while the Topix index added 0.17 percent.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 0.22 percent while ASX 200 in Australia advanced 0.52 percent.

Gold prices came under pressure on Friday after the private payroll data and service industry PMI of the U.S looked robust and hiked the taste for riskier assets and dimmed the bullion’s appeal.

Spot gold fell 0.6 percent to $1,509.41 per ounce as of 0709 GMT.

The U.S. gold futures shed 0.5 percent to $1,517.90 per ounce.

“Thursday’s data was positive, causing gold prices to reduce,” commented Brian Lan, managing director of GoldSilver Central in Singapore.