U.S. futures rise as markets eye nonfarm payrolls; Dow Jones up 0.32%

U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Friday, as markets eyed the release of a highly anticipated U.S. jobs report later in the trading session, amid speculation the Federal Reserve could scale back its asset purchases in the coming months. 

Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.32% rise, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.39% increase, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.29% gain. 

Markets were jittery on Thursday after the U.S. Commerce Department said gross domestic product increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.6% in the three months to September, above expectations for growth of 3.0% and up from a preliminary estimate of 2.8%. 

Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits last week fell by 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 298,000, from 321,000 in the previous week whose figure was revised up from 316,000. 

J.C. Penney was likely to be in focus, after the retailer disclosed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked for information about its finances, including a stock sale in September that it’s using to fund an attempted turnaround. 

Shares in the company plummeted 3.95% in pre-market trade. 

In the financial sector, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were accused of discriminatory mortgage lending by the city of Los Angeles, which seeks damages for reduced property tax revenue and the costs of maintaining foreclosed properties. 

In similar news, Goldman Sachs was sued by Singaporean wealth-management client Oei Hong Leong over a USD34.3 million loss on Brazilian real-yen options trades he claimed the bank misled him into making. 

Elsewhere, Twitter shares were steady in earl trading as co-founder Jack Dorsey reportedly sparked a price war over Japanese credit-card transactions with SoftBank's Masayoshi Son. 

Other stocks likely to be in focus included American Eagle Outfitters, scheduled to report quarterly earnings later in the day. 

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were higher. The EURO STOXX 50 edged up 0.11%, France’s CAC 40 added 0.11%, Germany's DAX rose 0.37%, while Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.44%. 

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up 0.13%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index climbed 0.81%. 

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release government data on nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate, while the University of Michigan was to produce the preliminary reading of its consumer sentiment index.