10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Here comes the jobs report. The US economy is expected to have added 200,000 nonfarm jobs in February as the unemployment rate slipped to 4.7%, according to the Bloomberg consensus. Additionally, average hourly earnings are expected to have increased by 2.8% year-over-year. The report will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET.
South Korea's president is out. In a decision that's "final and unchallengeable," South Korea's Constitutional Court has removed president Park Geun-hye from office as a result of her corruption scandal.
Mnuchin asks Congress to raise the debt ceiling.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sent letters to Congressional leaders on Thursday asking them to raise the debt ceiling by midnight on March 17 in order to prevent the Treasury from needing to take "extraordinary measures" for the federal government to keep paying its bills.
Oil is stabilizing. West Texas Intermediate crude oil trades up at 0.3% at $49.61 per barrel. Friday's bid comes after the energy component lost almost 7% over the previous two sessions in response to Department of Energy data showing US inventories swelled to a record high.
Bitcoin is unchanged ahead of the big SEC decision. The cryptocurrency holds at $1,200 a coin as traders await the US Securities and Exchange Commission's decision on whether or not it will approve at least one of the three proposed bitcoin-focused exchange-traded funds by the March 11 deadline. Because the deadline falls on a Saturday, the announcement could come as late as Monday.
Jeff Sessions rattles the marijuana industry. "[M]arijuana is against federal law, and that applies in states where they may have repealed their own anti-marijuana laws," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday. "And I'm not in favor of legalization of marijuana. I think it's a more dangerous drug than a lot of people realize."
Facebook reaches a deal to stream soccer matches. Facebook, Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, and Major League Soccer have reached an agreement where Facebook will stream at least 22 regular season matches, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Stock markets around the world are higher. Japan's Nikkei (+1.5%) led the gains in Asia and Spain's IBEX (+0.9%) sets the pace in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open higher by 0.4% near 2,375.
Earnings reports trickle out. Vail Resorts will release its quarterly results ahead of the opening bell.
US economic data is light. Aside from the jobs report and everything associated with it, traders will be watching the 1 p.m. ET release of the Baker Hughes rig count.