Futures Pointing To Higher Open On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Stocks futures have pulled back off their highs following the release of the monthly jobs report but currently continue to point to a higher open for the markets on Friday. The Dow futures are up by 33 points, while the Nasdaq futures are up by 8.75 points.

The Labor Department recently released a report showing that U.S. employment rose by much less than expected in the month of December, although the report also showed an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate.

The report said non-farm payroll employment edged up by 74,000 jobs in December following an upwardly revised increase of 241,000 jobs in November.

Economists had been expecting employment to increase by about 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 203,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Despite the weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent in December from 7.0 percent in November. The decline pulled the rate down to its lowest level since October of 2008.

While the drop in the unemployment rate came as a surprise to economists, the decline was largely due to a decrease in the size of the civilian labor force.

The report may generate some uncertainty about the outlook for the Federal Reserve's stimulus program, with the weak job growth raising questions about whether the central bank will continue to scale back its asset purchases.