Stocks Rise Ahead of May Employment Data Release

On Friday, the U.S. stock market opened higher as investors eagerly awaited the release of May employment data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 150 points, or 0.45%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.32% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.29%.

The jobs report, which is set to be released by the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show a rebound in job growth following April’s disappointing report. Economists are forecasting an addition of 671,000 jobs in May, up from 266,000 in April.

Investors also had their eyes on a handful of individual stocks, including cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD), cloud computing company Cloudflare (NET), and oil and gas services company Tidewater (TDW), all of which saw significant gains in pre-market trading.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Senate passed a bill to suspend the debt ceiling, a move that was seen as positive for the markets. “The debt ceiling bill passing takes one of the most unpalatable risks off the table,” said Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors.

However, concerns over rising inflation and a potential interest rate hike continued to weigh on the market. On Thursday, the Dow fell more than 20 points as labor data spurred rate hike jitters.

Market analysts will be closely monitoring the jobs report as they look for further clues on the state of the economy and the Federal Reserve’s next move.