Market Futures Down Slightly Ahead of More Jobs Data

U.S. equity markets were down ahead of the open with Nasdaq futures down almost a full point, or 102 points, followed by S&P and Dow futures down 0.70% and 0.50%, respectively. Markets are awaiting more jobs with initial jobless claims projected to rise slightly for the week but every other jobs report has been better than expected this week so it will be interesting to see if jobless claims break the trend a day before the big nonfarm payroll report.

Europe is also in the red halfway through the trading day with the DAX down 1.25% and England’s FTSE down 0.60%.

• In Asia, the Hang Seng Index closed down 3.0% while Shanghai was only down 0.19%. Japan’s Nikkei was basically unchanged with a 0.06% loss to close out the trading day.