Dow futures rise 165 pts; May nonfarm payrolls loom large

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Friday as investors cheer the passage of the debt ceiling bill through Congress ahead of the release of the keenly-anticipated monthly jobs report.

At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 165 points, or 0.5%, S&P 500 Futures traded 20 points, or 0.5%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 55 points, or 0.4%.

The U.S. Senate approved on Thursday a deal to raise the country's borrowing limit, following on from the lead of the House of Representatives the previous day after weeks of partisan strife.

The bill now heads to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature, which will avert a default just before the June 5 deadline, when the Treasury Department said the government would likely run out of money.

This will allow the country (and financial markets) to “breathe a sigh of relief”, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, after the decision.

With this drama seemingly drawing to a conclusion, the markets’ focus now shifts to the Federal Reserve policy-setting meeting later this month and whether the officials will sanction a pause in the central bank’s more than a year-long campaign of lifting interest rates.

The official monthly U.S. jobs report is due out later in the session, and will be one of the last pieces of data before the Fed’s meeting on June 13-14. 

It is expected to show that the largest economy in the world added 180,000 to payrolls in May, down from 253,000 in April.

In corporate news, Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) will be in the spotlight Friday after the athletic apparel retailer reported strong fiscal first-quarter results, boosted by lower transportation costs and growth in China. Its stock soared over 14% premarket.

MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB) stock rose over 25% after the database software maker lifted its full-year guidance on the back of stellar first-quarter results.

Oil prices rose strongly Friday as the approval of a bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling removed the threat of a severe hit to global economic activity.

This overshadowed the news that official data showed U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly grew almost 4.5 million barrels over the past week, pointing to elevated supply and softening demand even as the travel-heavy summer season kicks off.

The weekend sees the latest meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, amid uncertainty over its plans for future production levels.

By 06:50 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.4% higher at $71.06 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 1.3% to $75.26. 

Additionally, gold futures traded largely flat at $1,995.50/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.0770.