US stocks reverse course, move higher

NEW YORK - U.S. stock futures bounced around Friday ahead of a much-anticipated February employment report that investors will use to gauge the economy.

Stock futures, which had been lower, reversed course and indicated a moderately higher open with a half hour to go before release of the Labor Department's employment report at 8:30 a.m. EST.

Wall Street is eager for a read on the jobs picture. Unemployment remains relatively low by historical standards but an increase could set off fears of a consumer slowdown. The well-being of the consumer, whose spending accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, is key to investors' hopes of avoiding more economic pain amid the ongoing pullback in home values and credit troubles.

Wall Street expects the report will show the country's unemployment rate ticked up to 5 percent in February from January's 4.9 percent, according to Thomson/IFR. Payrolls are seen as rising by 25,000 compared with a loss of 17,000 in January.

A sour reading could weigh heavily on investors. Concerns about home foreclosures and further credit woes ¡X a string of troubles that started when debt backed by home mortgages began to go bad ¡X rippled through Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 215 points, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.20 percent.

Early Friday, Dow futures rose 6, or 0.05 percent, to 12,076. S&P 500 futures advanced 1.60, or 0.12 percent, to 1,309.50, and the Nasdaq 100 index rose 4.75, or 0.28 percent, to 1,719.00.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.54 percent from 3.59 percent late Thursday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude fell 6 cents to $105.41 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed down 3.27 percent after Wall Street's decline. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.13 percent, Germany's DAX index lost 0.94 percent, and France's CAC-40 slid 0.96 percent.

(Agencies)