Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Friday, as market participants awaited the release of a highly-anticipated U.S. nonfarm payrolls report later in the day.
Ahead of the open, the Dow 30 futures pointed to a 0.15% rise, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.19% gain, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.27% increase.
Markets were eyeing upcoming U.S. nonfarm payrolls data to be released later in the day, after payroll processing firm ADP reported on Wednesday that the U.S. private sector added 191,000 jobs last month, slightly below expectations for jobs growth of 195,000.
The financial sector was expected to be active, after J P Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), up 0.07% in after-hour trade, said it will merge the operation that produced a $6.2 billion trading loss in 2012 with another business unit.
Among tech stocks, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) jumped 0.92% in early trading after the company's Nest Labs, a digital-thermostat maker acquired earlier in the year, said it is suspending sales of its smoke alarm after it determined the unit could be switched off unintentionally.
Elsewhere, McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) dipped 0.05% in extended trading as the fastfood chain announced that it had suspended work at its restaurants in Crimea for "manufacturing reasons," becoming the second international company to cease operations this week on the peninsula.
In the Internet field, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) slid 0.32% after-hours even as it said users of its Vine video application can now send their contacts private videos and other messages, in a move to step up competition with Facebook in the mobile-messaging market.
Separately, Brendan Eich resigned as the head of software firm Mozilla Corporation on Thursday following a backlash over his support of California's anti-gay marriage law.
Other stocks likely to be in focus included CarMax (NYSE:KMX), scheduled to report quarterly earnings later in the day.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were higher. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 added 0.13%, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.20%, Germany's DAX gained 0.32%, while Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.37%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.24%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 eased 0.05%.