Futures aren't doing much ahead of the jobs report
Stock futures were a bit higher and not doing much ahead of the January employment report.
Near 7:15 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 20 points, the S&P 500 was virtually flat and the Nasdaq was up six points.
In more interesting moves, the US dollar index was nearly flat, but the currency was still on pace for its biggest weekly decline since 2009.
And, gold continued to rally, hitting a three-week high of about $1,161.10 an ounce.
The jobs report is expected to show that the US economy added 190,000 jobs in January, the unemployment rate held steady at 5%, and average hourly earnings rose from flat to 0.3% month-on-month.
Going by the consensus, the pace of job creation would be the slowest in four months. It will be closely watched to understand how the Fed might interpret the latest labor-market data in updating their assessments of the economy for the next policy meeting and interest-rate decision in March.
The trade balance will be released at the same time as the jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
More to come ...