Stocks looked set to tumble again on Friday, with investors still fretting about weak labor market data and bloated artificial-intelligence valuations.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 118 points, or 0.3%, to reverse an earlier gain. S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.5%.
The three major indexes all dropped on Thursday after Revlio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm, estimated that the U.S. lost 9,100 nonfarm jobs in October, raising concerns about the overall health of the U.S. economy.
The first Friday of the month usually marks the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly nonfarm payrolls report. But with that suspended due to the ongoing government shutdown, private companies’ forecasts have taken on an outsize importance for the market.
“In a parallel universe, we would this morning be eagerly awaiting the U.S. payrolls report,” Deutsche Bank macro strategist Jim Reid said. “But with its extended absence from the calendar, the past couple of days have seen outsized market reactions to second-tier US employment data that would normally serve as the amuse-bouche to today’s main event.”
Investors are also fretting about artificial-intelligence valuations, with the likes of Advanced Micro Devices, Palantir Technologies, and Qualcomm all sliding this week despite beating earnings expectations. Friday looks set to be a quiet day for quarterly reporting, which means labor-market worries could dictate the mood.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed 2 basis points to 4.11% on Friday. The dollar climbed 0.1% against a weighted basket of its peers, and gold rose 0.6% to $4,014 an ounce. Bitcoin was down 1.6% to $101,630 over the past 24 hours.