S&P 500 futures hold near record high with June jobs data in sight

U.S. stock futures held near all-time highs on Friday as Wall Street returned from a holiday break ahead of a key monthly jobs report that will factor into the Federal Reserve's rate cut calculations.

Futures on the S&P 500 (ES=F) were little changed after a shortened session on Wednesday and Thursday's closure for the July 4 holiday. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) were also flat, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) rose 0.1%.

Investors are eagerly awaiting the June jobs report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, in anticipation of a slowdown in the labor market. The report is expected to show that nonfarm payroll growth slowed to 190,000 in June and the unemployment rate held steady at 4%.

Signs of easing economic conditions in data released earlier this week reinforced the view that inflation will continue to slow, setting the stage for the Fed to cut interest rates from their 20-year high. Traders now price in a nearly 75% chance of a September rate cut, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.

The key question in Friday's jobs data is whether the slowdown in monthly job growth reflects a normalization of the labor market as it recovers from the pandemic, or the first signs of a broader economic slowdown, reports Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer.

Elsewhere, Labour’s landslide victory in the UK election has caught the attention of investors monitoring political risks in the US presidential race. As major donors urge President Joe Biden to step down, attention is turning to Donald Trump’s growing lead and its potential implications for markets.

Boosted by the rise of AI, Samsung Electronics' (005930.KS) quarterly profit jumped to 15 times a year ago, pushing the stock to its highest level in three years.

On the corporate front, cryptocurrency-related stocks Coinbase Global (COIN) and Marathon Digital (MARA) were down about 6% in premarket trading, while bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell to its lowest level against the dollar since February.