NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
All eyes will be on the June jobs report Friday as investors look for more clues about the strength of the U.S. economy and the pace of inflation, trying to anticipate how aggressively the Fed will raise rates in coming months.
The jobs report, due Friday before the market opens, is the first broad glimpse of the economy's strength last month.
Analysts are forecasting that 250,000 new jobs were created in June and that the unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Stocks sank Thursday, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 down about 1 percent, buffeted by profit warnings, downgrades and a pair of weak readings on employment and manufacturing activity.
The Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.6 percent, down 32.24 to 2,015.55.
Cardinal Health, Emulex and Amkor Technology issued profit warnings, and Yahoo! and Boeing were downgraded by analysts.
Issues that could be active Friday include Apple Computer Inc., which announced late Thursday plans for a new iMac desktop computer. The computer won't ship until September, missing its original internal schedule and the back-to-school shopping season.
The company also said it has stopped taking orders for the current iMac and gave no other details about the forthcoming replacement.
Apple (AAPL: Research, Estimates) stock fell 5.5 percent to $30.53 in after-hours trade.
Netflix Inc. said after the closing bell Thursday that total subscribers soared in the second quarter, up 82 percent from a year earlier and near the high end of its previous forecasts.
The company's subscriber numbers climbed during an overall 10 percent price hike during the quarter.
Netflix (NFLX: Research, Estimates) stock dropped 3.1 percent in after-hours trading on Inet.
Verizon Communications, (VZ: Research, Estimates) the biggest U.S. regional telephone company, said late Thursday it overstated phone lines by about 1.5 million, blaming a database problem. Verizon stock was flat after the bell.
The company also said that Verizon Wireless will buy the wireless assets of Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q: Research, Estimates) for $418 million, gaining spectrum licenses in 14 states.
The deal, which does not include Qwest's subscriber base, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year or in early 2005.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group (VOD: Research, Estimates).
Trading is likely to be subdued before the long holiday weekend, with no companies reporting quarterly earnings until the following Wednesday.
-- from staff reports and wires
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