US Stock Futures Edge Higher Before Payrolls Data: Markets Wrap

Richard Henderson and Sujata Rao

Fri, Mar 7, 2025, 4:33 AM 3 min read

(Bloomberg) — US stock futures pointed to small gains on Wall Street as traders awaited monthly payrolls data for the latest clues on the economy’s health. Bitcoin retreated as details of a US strategic reserve disappointed investors.

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S&P 500 futures were up 0.3% and contracts on the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4% as Broadcom Inc., a chip supplier for Apple Inc. and other big tech companies, surged in premarket trading. The 10-year US Treasury yield was steady at 4.27% while an index of the dollar fell for a fifth session, its longest losing streak in almost a year.

US employers likely added 160,000 jobs last month, showcasing a labor market holding steady in the face of mounting policy uncertainty, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Wall Street failed to stage a rebound on Thursday even after President Donald Trump delayed levies on Mexican and Canadian goods covered by the North American trade deal.

The back-and-forth on tariffs “is creating a lot of uncertainty and that is showing up not only in markets, which have become quite volatile, but also in forward looking leading indicators, such as surveys and purchasing managers indexes,” said Florian Ielpo at Lombard Odier. “For now the hard data remains good, but the soft data is deteriorating, and the question is which one is correct.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is slated to speak at a monetary policy forum in the afternoon.

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While Europe’s stock benchmark retreated on Friday, Germany’s historic shift toward increased spending helped put the euro on track for its best week since 2009. The prospect of more debt issuance hoisted yields on German bonds by the most since 1990 earlier in the week. The rate on 10-year bunds was little changed on Friday at 2.83%.

Bitcoin Drops

Bitcoin, meanwhile, sank as much as 5.7% and four other digital tokens that had previously been highlighted by Trump fell at least 3%, as a potential lack of new buying weighed on the market.

The executive order signed by Trump indicated that the government wouldn’t use taxpayer money to fund a strategic reserve of the largest digital asset. Instead, the reserve would be capitalized with Bitcoin already owned by the federal government.