Looking for jobsFutures churn as investors await much anticipated November employment report.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Investors were cautious in the early going Friday as they awaited the always widely awaited monthly job report, due an hour before the market opens. Stock futures edged lower, pointing to sluggish start for Wall Street. But all that could change at 8:30 a.m. ET when the government releases its employment report for November. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that employers added a modest 105,000 jobs in November, up from 92,000 in October. That would be well below the average job growth so far this year of about 147,000. The unemployment rate is forecast to edge up to 4.5 percent from the five-year low of 4.4 percent reached in October. Oil price rose back above $63 a barrel in early trading. U.S. crude climbed 89 cents to $63.38 a barrel in electronic trading. Brent crude futures gained $1.21 to $63.78 in London. Treasury prices edged lower ahead of the jobs report, with the yield on the 10-year note at 4.49 percent, versus 4.48 percent late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. The dollar rose against the yen and edged higher against the euro. In corporate news, research service NPD is reporting that the Wii video game player from Nintendo (Charts) is beating the PlayStation 3 sales by competitor Sony (Charts). Wal-Mart Stores (Charts) pulled a $580 million advertising account from a unit of Interpublic Group (Charts) just weeks after it was awarded, and it will not allow the ad agency to submit a new bid for the lucrative account. The No. 1 retailer said the decision is due to information obtained in recent weeks. The move comes just days after Wal-Mart dismissed the executive who chose that ad agency. Shares of Interpublic fell 5 percent in after-hours trading. Hewlett-Packard (Charts) announced after the close Thursday that it will pay $14.5 million as part of an agreement with the California attorney general's office to settle civil claims related to its controversial probe into leaks from its boardroom. National Semiconductor (Charts) met forecasts in its after-hours earnings report despite a drop in quarterly profit due to high inventories among customers. Shares of the chipmaker were little changed. |
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