5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday

Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:

Stock futures are effectively flat Friday morning, as Wall Street awaits the key July nonfarm payrolls report that’s due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. The move in futures comes after a mixed Thursday session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.26%, its third negative day in four, while the S&P 500 lost merely 0.08% and remains positive week to date. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, rose 0.41% to close at its highest level since May 4.

Economists expect the U.S. added 258,000 jobs in July, according to Dow Jones, a strong pace of hiring that nevertheless would represent a cooling compared with the first six months of the year. The concern is job growth could slow even more from here, adding to recession fears as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to tamp down the hottest inflation in the U.S. in four decades. In Friday’s jobs report, the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.6%, according to Dow Jones. Wages are seen as rising 0.3% month over month.

China said Friday it’s putting a stop to cooperation with the U.S. on issues including climate change and military relations after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this week visited Taiwan, the democratic island that Beijing claims as its own territory. China also imposed sanctions on Pelosi personally for the visit, which further stoked tensions between the world’s two largest economies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized China for launching missiles during military exercises near Taiwan this week, saying those actions represented an “extreme, disproportionate and escalatory” response, according to Reuters.

DoorDash shares jumped more than 9% in premarket trading Friday, after the food delivery company’s second-quarter revenue exceeded expectations and orders delivered in the period reached an all-time high of 426 million. However, DoorDash reported a wider-than-expected loss of 72 cents per share and warned it anticipates a “softer consumer spending environment” in the third and fourth quarters.

In more earnings news:

• Expedia Group posted strong earnings and revenue for the quarter ended June 30, sending shares up more than 4%, and CEO Peter Kern said “travel demand has remained strong” despite flight disruptions and economic uncertainty.
• Ride-hailing company Lyft reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings, based on estimates compiled by FactSet, helping send shares higher by 7.5% in premarket trading.
• Beyond Meat trimmed its full-year sales forecast and announced plans to lay off about 4% of its workforce, while also reporting disappointing Q2 results. CNBC’s Amelia Lucas has a full recap here.

Democrats in the Senate appear to have enough support to advance the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, and a 1% tax on stock buybacks is reportedly now part of the sweeping legislative proposal, CNBC’s Ylan Mui reported Friday morning. However, as a condition of garnering the backing of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., the bill no longer includes a change to the carried interest tax, which allows hedge fund and private equity investors to pay a lower rate. Read a full story on Sinema’s support for the legislation here.

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