NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 07:05 EST — Premarket
- U.S. stock futures point lower ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report.
- Defense shares climb after President Donald Trump floated a bigger 2027 military budget.
- Jobless claims, trade and productivity data lead the U.S. economic calendar at 8:30 a.m. ET.
U.S. stock index futures edged down on Thursday, with traders keeping positions tight ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, while defense names rose on talk of a bigger Pentagon budget. At 5:08 a.m. ET, Dow futures were down 146 points, or 0.30%, S&P 500 futures slipped 0.22% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.31% — futures are contracts that track where indexes may open. Lockheed Martin climbed 7.2%, Northrop Grumman added 7.5% and RTX rose 4.9% after Trump said the 2027 U.S. military budget should be $1.5 trillion, versus the $901 billion Congress approved for 2026.
Why the data matters now is simple: the market is near highs, but the labor picture looks uneven and rate bets are jumpy. Job openings fell by 303,000 to 7.146 million in November, while hiring slipped again, keeping the labor market in what policymakers have called a “no hire, no fire” phase. “The November JOLTS estimates show a notable decline in job openings,” Marc Giannoni, chief economist at Barclays, said; a separate ADP reading showed private payrolls rising 41,000 in December, below expectations. Reuters
The payrolls report itself is due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, before the opening bell, and it tends to drive both Treasury yields and equity futures in the first hour of trading. A firmer print can push bond yields higher and pressure growth stocks, while a weak number can revive worries about demand and profits even if it cools rate fears.
Thursday’s U.S. economic calendar is packed early: weekly jobless claims and international trade data land at 8:30 a.m. ET alongside the productivity-and-costs report; wholesale inventories follow at 10:00 a.m. ET and consumer credit is due at 3:00 p.m. ET. Economists tracked by Investing.com expected initial jobless claims at 213,000, with nonfarm productivity seen at 4.9% and unit labor costs at 0.0%.
Rates were steady heading into the prints, with the 10-year Treasury yield little changed around 4.16% in early trading. Oil was higher, with U.S. crude up about 1% near $56.60 a barrel, while the dollar index ticked up slightly.
But this setup can break quickly. A surprise jump in jobless claims, an unexpected rise in labor costs, or another bout of policy-driven headlines could drag the market off its footing and widen moves that have mostly stayed orderly so far this week.
