Futures Pointing To A Roughly Flat Open On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply higher over the course of the two previous sessions, stocks may show a lack of direction in early trading on Friday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by just 2 points.

The lack of momentum for the markets comes following the release of a closely watched jobs report from the Labor Department that has painted a mixed picture regarding the outlook for monetary policy.

The report said U.S. employment increased by 252,000 jobs in December after jumping by an upwardly revised 353,000 jobs in November. Employment had been expected to climb by about 245,000 jobs.

The stronger than expected job growth helped to push the unemployment rate down to 5.6 percent in December from 5.8 percent in November.

Economists had expected the unemployment rate to dip to 5.7 percent, and the bigger than expected drop pulled the rate down to its lowest level since June of 2008.

While the upbeat data suggests that the Federal Reserve will consider raising interest rates in the near future, the report also showed a slowdown in wage growth.

The report said the annual rate of average hourly earnings growth slowed to 1.7 percent in December, the slowest rate of growth since January of 2012.