U.S. stock index futures were steady
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00 were down 0.1% at 33,621, or 0.18% at 37 Cents
- S&P 500 futures ES00, at 0.18%, were up 2.26 points, or 0.1%, at 4,129.75.
- Nasdaq 100 futures NQ00, 0.0.04%, fell 1.26 points or less than 0.1% to 13,169.51
Aside from the Dow industrials, U.S. stocks ended a short-term vacation week after several weekly gains for the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq. The Dow, 0.01%, advanced 0.5% for the week, while the S&P 500 SPX, 0.36%, shed 0.1%, and the Nasdaq COMP, 0.76%, fell 1.12% after posting its best quarterly result since 2020.
The Wall Street Journal conducted a survey and found that statistics showed that the U.S. added 238,000 additional jobs in March. This is down from 311,000. After a 0.2% increase last February, the unemployment rate will remain at 3.62%. Average hourly earnings are expected likewise to rise by 0.32%.
In the past 20 months, unemployment claims have fallen below a low of 20.
In the last week, investors saw a surge in jobs-related statistics. On Tuesday, a report showed that U.S. unemployment claims dropped below 10 million to a 20 month low. This suggests that the hot job market is losing steam.
ADP reported this week that the private sector added 145,000…
