Nasdaq, S&P futures fall as tech surge stumbles; payrolls on tap

Triple-A megacap buzzkills stopped the Big Tech party, pushing stock index futures lower Friday. But January jobs numbers will have a big impact on opening direction.

Nasdaq 100 futures (NDX:IND) -1% look set to give back some of the previous session’s big gains after Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) saw post-earnings declines.

S&P futures (SPX) -0.6% and Dow futures (INDU) -0.2% also fell.

Rates are flat ahead of payrolls. The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) was unchanged at 3.39% and the 2-year yield (US2Y) was steady at 4.09%.

Yesterday, Bloomberg’s financial conditions index for the U.S. eased intraday “to its most accommodative level since last February before tightening into the close as rates sold off,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid said. “Regardless financial conditions remain nearly as loose as we have seen in nearly a year.”

Economists expect nonfarm payrolls rose by 185K last month, with jobless rate ticking up to 3.6%.

“It is US employment report Friday, which means economists will be tirelessly reiterating their monthly reminder that ‘average hourly earnings are not wages,'” UBS’ Paul Donovan wrote. “The increase in the number of people taking additional jobs to help overcome disastrously bad real wages will tend to lower average hourly earnings. However, as not all the job layoffs that have been announced have been implemented, the payrolls number may get some support.”

After the start of trading, the ISM service index for January arrives. The forecast is for a rise to 50.4.

Among other active stocks, Nordstrom (JWN) soared on a report that Ryan Cohen had taken a stake.