By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a higher opening on Friday following the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report.
The futures held on to earlier gains after the Labor Department released a report showing stronger than expected job growth in the month of November.
Positive sentiment may also be generated by news that both the House and the Senate passed a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
The legislation extends government funding until December 22nd, giving lawmakers time to negotiate a longer-term spending bill.
Stocks saw moderate strength during trading on Thursday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. Despite the upward move, the major averages remained below their recent record highs.
The major averages ended the day in positive territory but off their highs of the session. The Dow rose 70.57 points or 0.3 percent to 24,211.48, the Nasdaq advanced 36.47 points or 0.5 percent to 6,812.84 and the S&P 500 climbed 7.71 points or 0.3 percent to 2,636.98.
The strength on Wall Street may have reflected optimism about lawmakers passing a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
Meanwhile, traders continued to express some uncertainty about the details of the final Republican tax reform bill.
The Senate voted 51 to 47 on Wednesday in favor of a motion to go to a conference committee with the House. The vote came down strictly along party lines.
Senate and House lawmakers will need to reach an agreement addressing significant differences between their two bills.
In economic news, the Labor Department released a report unexpectedly showing a modest decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 2nd.
The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 236,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 238,000. The drop surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 240,000.
Late in the trading day, the Federal Reserve released a separate report showing consumer credit jumped by $20.5 billion in October compared to economist estimates for an increase of $17.5 billion.
Biotechnology stocks moved significantly higher over the course of the trading session, resulting in a 1.7 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. The advance by the index came after it closed lower for three consecutive sessions.
Within the biotech sector, Sage Therapeutics (SAGE) is posting a substantial gain after its Phase 2 study of SAGE-217 showed a statistically significant mean reduction in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.
Considerable strength was also visible among electronic storage stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index. Micron Technology (MU) led the sector higher.
Transportation stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, with the Dow Jones Transportation Average climbing by 1.3 percent.
Internet, housing, brokerage and semiconductor stocks also moved notably higher on the day, while tobacco stocks moved to the downside.
