Job jitters for Wall Street

Stock futures look for direction ahead of much anticipated February jobs report.

March 10, 2006: 6:16 AM EST


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Investors appeared to be waiting for the much anticipated monthly U.S. jobs report to set the direction for stocks Friday.

U.S. stock futures were up, although a comparison to fair value indicated a mixed or flat open for U.S. markets. But that could easily change at 8:30 a.m. ET when the Labor Department releases its February employment report.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that U.S. payrolls grew by 210,000 jobs last month following a gain of 193,000 jobs in January. They also see the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.7 percent. Forecasts from economists surveyed by Reuters range from a net gain of 100,000 to 280,000 jobs.

Oil prices were higher in early trading Friday.

The April light crude futures contract for NYMEX gained 13 cents to $60.60 a barrel in electronic trading, while the April contract for Brent crude rose 46 cents to $61.52.

Major markets in Asia closed mixed Friday, the day after the Bank of Japan signaled the end of its long-held near-zero interest rate policy. Major European markets were flat in early trading.

Treasury prices were lower, lifting the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.74 percent from 4.72 percent late Thursday. The dollar was lower against the euro but up against the yen.

In corporate news, the Wall Street Journal reported that newspaper publisher McClatchy (Research) appeared to be the leading bidder in the auction for the Knight Ridder (Research) newspaper chain, with an offer reported to be worth more than $65 a share in cash and stock, or more than $4.35 billion. That would represent a premium of only about 4 percent from current prices for Knight Ridder shares.

Media conglomerate Walt Disney (Research) has its shareholder meeting Friday, the first under the leadership of CEO Robert Iger, with the company's shares among the best performers of the components of the Dow in 2006. The meeting is likely to be far calmer than the one two years ago that included a shareholder revolt that led to the removal of Michael Eisner as chairman of the company and started him on the path to an earlier than planned retirement.