Stock futures held higher on Thursday morning after a dip in weekly jobless claims, a positive trend ahead of the monthly jobs report out Friday.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.25%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.23%, and Nasdaq futures rose 0.35%.
Jobless claims sank in the past week, holding at multi-year lows. The number of new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 to 238,000, beating an estimated decrease to 246,000. The less volatile, four-week claims average increased by 750 to 243,000. The four-week continuing claims average sat at its lowest in nearly thirty years.
U.S. productivity in the first quarter fell by 0.6%, while output rose 1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of hours worked increased 1.6% over the period from January to March and unit-labor costs gained 3%.
Wall Street was also looking ahead to the release Friday of the nonfarm payrolls report. Analysts anticipate data to show 193,000 jobs to have been added to the U.S. economy in April and for the unemployment rate to tick up to 4.6%. Average hourly earnings are expected to grow 0.3%. The U.S. added 235,000 and 98,000 jobs over February and March, respectively, the first full two months under Donald Trump's presidency.
Not all analysts expect quite a strong headline number, though. Analysts at TD Securities expect 165,000 jobs to have been added to the U.S. economy in April, though anticipate a slightly stronger 0.4% growth rate in earnings.
"We see limited upside this month as we believe a slower pace of job growth is gradually emerging, consistent with nearing full employment," TD Securities analysts wrote in a note. "Data in the past week is also supportive of our below-consensus call; in particular we take note of the ISM non-manufacturing employment print, which held at levels consistent with gains closer to 100k."
The U.S. trade deficit decreased by 0.1% in March to $43.7 billion. Exports fell by 0.9% to $191 billion, while imports dipped 0.7% to $234.8 billion.
