NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street headed for a mixed open Friday ahead of the government's monthly employment report, which is expected to show the U.S. economy shed more than 600,000 jobs in March.
The Labor Department report, which is to be released an hour before the market opens, is often regarded on Wall Street as the most important piece of economic news each month. There is particular focus on jobs now that the recession has stretched into the longest since World War II.
A troublesome unemployment report could upend Wall Street's rally in the past month.
The report isn't as timely as the weekly employment snapshots that the government issues but traders look to the monthly numbers as a sound measure of the job market. Traders don't want to see big expansions of the number of people out of work because it likely would crimp the economy's ability to recover.
Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity so a rise in unemployment could corporate profits.
The stock market has been surging as traders find small but encouraging signs that the economy could be improving or at least slowing its descent. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 20.4 percent since March 9, its best four-week run since 1933.
The Labor Department report is expected to show that a net total of 654,000 jobs were lost last month. That would mark a record four straight months that job losses topped 600,000.
The nation's unemployment rate is expected to jump to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent in February. That would mark the highest jobless rate since late 1983, when the country was coming out of a deep recession that sent unemployment above 10 percent.
The report is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Ahead of the report, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 2, or less than 0.1 percent, to 7,956. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.20, also less than 0.1 percent, to 835.70. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 8.50, or 0.7 percent, to 1,310.00.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq was poised to open higher after BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. posted a better-than-expected jump in fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell Thursday.
Some selling wouldn't be unexpected Friday after the Dow surged 2.8 percent on Thursday and spent much of the day above the 8,000 mark for the first time since February. Traders have been emboldened by better-than-expected figures on housing and manufacturing.
The stock market could still recover as unemployment remains high. Wall Street will just want some signs that the prospects for the labor market aren't getting far worse. In downturns during the past 60 years, the S&P 500 index has hit bottom an average of four months before a recession ended and about nine months before unemployment hit its peak.
In other markets early Friday, bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.78 percent from 2.76 percent late Thursday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.21 percent from 0.20 percent.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.3 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.7 percent, and France's CAC-40 slipped less than 0.1 percent.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKXRM