Stock futures rise after Wall Street rally; Fed speakers in focus

On Friday, Wall Street saw a calm trading day with investors displaying slight optimism. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a benchmark of major U.S. stocks, remained flat at 51,826 points. The S&P 500, a more diversified index of 500 large U.S. companies, also remained steady at 7,637 points. The Nasdaq Composite, a tech-heavy index, increased by 0.3% to 26,418 points.

The Nasdaq 100, representing the 100 largest non-financial companies by market capitalization, rose by 0.3% to 29,529 points. The positive sentiment was bolstered by surprisingly strong U.S. labor market data released on Thursday. The number of first-time unemployment claims in the week preceding September 12th decreased to 196,000, significantly lower than the expected 207,500.

Lukasz Skiba, a senior market specialist at Capital.com, noted that the surprisingly low unemployment claims indicated a robust U.S. economy. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh supported this view, suggesting that the U.S. economy is strong enough to combat inflation without significantly harming employment. Combined with falling oil prices and a rebound in the bond market, this provided a boost to U.S. stocks.

Oil prices continued to fall at the oil markets, with Brent crude oil for November delivery costing around $103 per barrel, or 1.2% less than the previous day. Lower oil prices were due to reports of alternative shipping routes for Saudi Arabian oil exports, which helped alleviate concerns about supply bottlenecks following the Iran war.