* Futures down after S&P, Dow hit two-year closing high
* U.S. October employment report on tap
* Futures dip: S&P 3.1 pts, Dow 22 pts, Nasdaq 4 pts
* For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US] (Adds byline, quote, AIG earnings results)
By Angela Moon
NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Friday as investors booked profits on the heels of a Wall Street rally to a two-year high and ahead of an all-important jobs report.
The non-farm payroll report, released at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), is expected to show employment rose for the first time since May with 60,000 jobs added October, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain elevated at 9.6 percent. For details, see [ID:nN04265378]
The data follows a sharp rally in stocks and commodities worldwide on Thursday spurred by the Federal Reserve's decision to buy $600 billion in government bonds to help the ailing economy.
"It's been a heck of a week with the elections and the Fed. The third leg of the stool comes today with the non-farm payrolls numbers. Based on that, we could rally further or have a pullback, but what is certain is that we won't be falling back to the levels we saw in September," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies and Co in Boston.
The dollar was mired near 11-month lows against a basket of currencies <.DXY> while oil eased from a two-year high. Losses were limited by the new round of U.S. economic stimulus, which has boosted the appeal of commodities as an asset class in an environment of a weak dollar.
S&P 500 futures
The S&P 500 index is up about 16 percent since the start of September as investors bet that action by the Fed and Republican gains in the U.S. midterm election would create a better environment for corporate profits. The Dow index closed on Thursday at its highest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank in September 2008.
Europe's biggest bank HSBC
Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>
American International Group Inc
Late on Thursday, Starbucks Corp
CBS Corp
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
S&P 500 companies scheduled to report earnings throughout
the day include Coventry Health Care Inc
Data on September pending-home sales, expected to rise 3 percent month over month, will be released at 10:00 a.m. (1400 GMT).
(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)