Wall Street ahead of U.S. payrolls data (MarketWatch) (03-02-2012)

LONDON — U.S. stock futures rose on Friday awaiting jobs data that will provide more clues about the strength of the economic recovery. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 24 points to 12,690 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index climbed 2.90 points to 1,325.6. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 8 points to 2,499.5.

The main event on Friday is the Labor Department’s jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect that the U.S. economy added 121,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate remained at 8.5%.

Several companies will report earnings, including beauty-product firm Estée Lauder Cos and cleaning-products company Clorox Co.

Crude oil for March delivery gained 66 cents to $97.02 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. April gold futures edged higher to $1,761 an ounce.

Source: MarketWatch