Nonfarm payrolls for May is expected to rise to 185,000 from 164,000

The month of May is winding down and it’s officially summer here in the United States. And it’s NOT only the weather that’s heating up, but the stock market, has been a hot topic this week despite a cold start.

The markets were closed this past Monday in honor of the Memorial Day holiday and when the opening bell rang on Tuesday, well, let’s just say it was not a strong start for the Dow Jones. Amid a lack of major economic data, it was European politics that took center stage as political disarray in Italy and Spain helped push not only the euro to it’s lowest level of the year, but the Big Board saw a big slide, dropping nearly 400-points at the close.

However, for the rest of the week, it’s not Europe that will be grabbing the headlines. Instead, it will be jobs numbers as the highly anticipated monthly US employment report is scheduled for release. This Friday morning, 8:30am ET, nonfarm payrolls and the US unemployment rate for May will be released. Nonfarm payrolls for May is expected to rise to 185,000 from 164,000 and the US unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 3.9%.

However, following the release of the monthly private jobs report this past Wednesday, there is now a lot more interest in Friday’s numbers. On Wednesday, private companies added a less-than-expected 178,000 jobs in May. Expectations were for an addition of 190,000 jobs. Mixed signals ahead of Friday’s big data release.

Taking a look now to see how the markets are shaping up, heading into the close, the Dow Jones is up nearly 275 points at 24,635.28. The SP500 is up 33 points, annuity 1.25% at 2722.88 and the Nasdaq is also rising, up nearly 1%.

Across the pond, as Wall Street saw a recovery from the previous session, so did the FTSE. However, the FTSE was led higher by oil companies. BP and Royal Dutch Shell added about 1% each as oil prices rebounded from an early slide on concerns that Saudi Arabia and Russia would pump more crude in response to falling global oil inventories and rising consumer prices.

The UK's FTSE 100 was up 0.75 percent at 7687.57 at market close.

And before we go, let’s take a look at commodities with oil up nearly 2.5% at 68.37 a barrel and gold is up, 0.25% at 1,307.30 a troy ounce.

And until next time, live from the NYSE, I’m James Sweeney for AETOS WebTV.

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