Stock futures edge lower ahead of key jobs report

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Stock futures fell early on Friday following a rally on Wall Street as investors await a key jobs report Friday.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91 points or 0.29%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.36%, and Nasdaq 100 futures slumped 0.44%.

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

GameStop fell about 5% in after-hours trading when 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 regular session, a day after the video game retailer announced that its board approved a 4-for-1 stock split.

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, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The index is now down about 19% from its all-time high in January.

Energy stocks led gains during regular 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.

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.

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.

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