Wall Street swung between small gains and losses in a quiet session before the bell on Friday, as markets anticipated the release of key U.S. jobs data.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&The P 500 each rose less than 0.1% before markets opened.
GameStop, the troubled video game retailer at the center of the meme stock craze, fell more than 16% after reporting another loss and filing regulatory paperwork to sell up to 75 million shares. GameStop Corp. lost $32.3 million, or 11 cents per share, for the period ended May 4, as sales fell 29% from a year earlier.
Vail Resorts fell 6.7% after the ski resort operator missed Wall Street's profit and sales targets as demand for its multi-resort Epic Pass weakened.
With limited corporate news and only a handful of companies reporting earnings, most of Wall Street's attention was focused on the May jobs report due out later on Friday.
A strong labor market has contributed to the Federal Reserve's insistence on keeping its interest rate elevated over the past year, although some weakness has emerged recently. The number of job vacancies in April fell to its lowest level since 2021, while job creation that month (175,000) was the lowest in six months.
Economists forecast the economy added a similar 180,000 jobs in May.
Part of the Federal Reserve's intention to raise interest rates starting in 2022 was to cool the labor market and the slow wage growth that it believes contributed to the highest inflation in four decades. While year-over-year price growth has slowed from highs above 9%, the labor market has remained strong. The unemployment rate has remained below 4% for 27 consecutive months, the longest period since the 1960s.
Federal Reserve officials will likely consider employment data due out Friday when they meet next week to decide on interest rates, but most experts predict the U.S. central bank will leave its policy intact. reference rate for the seventh consecutive time.
Elsewhere, European stocks fell in midday trading after the European Central Bank cut its key. interest rate from a record high of 4% on Thursday, leaving uncertainty about the next policy step. France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX each lost 0.9%, while Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.5%.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.1% to 38,683.93 after data on Friday showed household spending in April rose 0.5% year-on-year. This was the first increase since February 2023 and is a key indicator in assessing the country's economy as central bank officials prepare to hold a monetary policy meeting next week.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.6% to 18,366.95, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1% to 3,051.28, as China trade data showed exports in May rose faster than expected, 7.6% compared to the previous year, while imports were weaker than the market. forecasts.
S from Australia&The P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 7,860.00. South Korea's Kospi rose 1.2% to 2,722.67.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 56 cents to $76.11 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 48 cents to $80.35 a barrel.
The US dollar fell to 155.63 Japanese yen from 155.68 yen. The euro was worth $1.0898, down from $1.0888.
the&The P 500 barely moved on Thursday, a day after hitting a record high for the 25th time this year. It fell less than 0.1% to 5,352.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2% to 38,886.17, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1% to 17,173.12 after hitting its own record.
