U.S. stock futures were a little lower Friday ahead of the release of one of the worse expected jobs reports. Stocks declined Friday despite an upside surprise in weekly jobless claims as negative corporate news just kept hitting the market. Futures remained near Thursday's lows.Overseas, markets were mostly lower Friday despite rate cuts in Europe. Investors, it seems, were more concerned about the critical U.S. employment report. With further bad news on the economic front that is bound to lower demand for crude, oil continued to trade near four-year lows.
Leaders are acting, or pledging to act as the U.S. and China pledged Friday to work together to tackle global financial turmoil.
The Labor Department will release the November jobs report Friday at 8:30 am. It is expected to show further deterioration of the employment market and at an alarming rate. The unemployment rate likely climbed to 6.8% from 6.5% in October, which would be the worst showing in 15 years. Employers probably cut another 320,000 last month, which would represent the deepest cut to monthly payrolls since October 2001. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect a decline of 350,000 jobs, which would be the largest loss since 431,000 jobs were lost in May 1980.