Momentum stocks sell off for second day; Nasdaq down 2 percent
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
1 of 4. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange April 3, 2014.
The employment report for March is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Analysts expect a gain of 200,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate expected to tick down to 6.6 percent from the 6.7 percent in the prior month.
Investors will look for evidence that recent weather-related weakness in the economy has passed. While recent economic data has shown improvement from earlier this year, when lackluster data was largely discounted due to a harsh winter, they have not shown a marked improvement over last year.
U.S. stocks slipped in the prior session, as investors turned cautious ahead the jobs report, while a drop in biotech and momentum shares dragged the Nasdaq down nearly 1 percent.
S&P 500 e-mini futures rose 3.5 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 23 points and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 10.25 points.
Mylan Inc (MYL.O) rose 8.3 percent to $54 in premarket trading after a report said the company is looking to acquire Swedish rival Meda AB (MEDAa.ST).
Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) gained 1.4 percent to $100.38. The company said Thursday it would pay more than $5 billion to clean up areas across the United States polluted by nuclear fuel, wood creosote and rocket fuel waste, resolving a long-running lawsuit.
Boeing Inc (BA.N) is considering buying Mercury Systems Inc (MRCY.O), a supplier of digital signal and image processing systems to the aerospace and defense industry, according to two people familiar with the matter.
European shares advanced for a ninth straight session and Asian markets were little changed ahead of the payrolls report. .EU
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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