Wall Street futures rose on Friday, with Treasury yields falling on reduced risks of interest rate hikes this month and oil prices easing, as investors awaited a key jobs report later in the day.
Brent crude LCOc1 fell below $100 a barrel after reports that the European Union discussed new sales from diesel and crude oil stockpiles, though no new developments were reported on resolving the Middle East conflict.
Tech and big-cap stocks led the gains. Nvidia NVDA.O gained nearly 0.9%, while Broadcom AVGO.O and Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O rose about 1% each. Alphabet GOOGL.O and Tesla TSLA.O each added nearly 1%.
Nike NKE.N fell 10% after the U.S. sportswear maker reported a sharp, unexpected drop in annual revenue due to a weak China market, announced job cuts and decided to restructure its global business divisions.
Investor focus will now be on the U.S. non-farm payrolls data for September, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT), with economists expecting a slowdown in U.S. job growth and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.1% for a third straight month.
Investors will gauge this data alongside other indicators earlier in the week that showed robust economic activity and slower-than-expected, but still above the central bank's 2% target, price gains.
The inflation report and comments from at least two top officials pushing back against another rate hike in October have led investors to bet on a Federal Reserve 'hold' at the end of the month.
At 4:59 a.m. ET, Dow E-mini futures YMcv1 were up 259 points, or 0.51%, and S&P 500 E-mini futures EScv1 were up 38.75 points, or 0.5%. Nasdaq 100 NQcv1 E-mini futures were up 256 points, or 0.83%.
The 2-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR , which is sensitive to rate expectations, held near its lowest level in more than a week on Thursday, as investors cited an improved risk/reward profile following the recent sell-off.
Traders are pricing in a 76% chance of the Fed holding rates steady in October, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool, compared with about 29% a week ago.
Despite Friday's gains, Wall Street's main indexes were set to end the week lower, with the S&P 500 .SPX poised to shed 1%.
These declines were largely driven by pressure from Treasury yields, which hit their highest level in more than two decades this week on inflation and growing concerns about debt in developed economies.
Friday will also see August industrial orders data, as well as remarks from Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan.
In other stocks, Moderna MRNA.O rose 2.3% after Nasdaq NDAQ.O operator said the vaccine maker would replace Warner Bros. Discovery WBD.O in the Nasdaq-100 index .NDX from Oct. 9.
Reflecting the general risk-on mood, bitcoin BTC= rose 2%, while Coinbase COIN.O and MicroStrategy MSTR.O each gained nearly 3%.
