Stock Futures Little Changed Ahead of Monthly Jobs Data

U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Friday as uncertainty about the presidential election continued to weigh on investors' minds and ahead of the monthly employment data.

Investors have been unnerved by signs the U.S. presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump is tightening, after Clinton had until recently been thought to have a clear lead.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos polling showed Clinton, seen as the status quo candidate by markets, maintaining a narrow lead over Trump.

However, several swing states that the Republican challenger must win have shifted from favoring Clinton to toss-ups, offering Trump a possible route to victory.

Nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 175,000 jobs last month after rising 156,000 in September, according to a Reuters survey of economists. The unemployment rate is expected to fall by one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.9 percent.

The report, expected at 8:30 a.m. ET, follows last week's data that showed an acceleration in economic growth in the third quarter. But economists see little impact from the report on an increasingly bitter and divisive election campaign.

The S&P 500 fell for an eighth straight session on Thursday, its longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis.

The CBOE Volatility Index, a gauge of near-term investor anxiety, also climbed to its highest level in more than four months on Thursday.

The dollar inched up from a four-week low on Friday but was on track for its worst week in 12, pressured by worries that Donald Trump could win next week's U.S. presidential election.

Oil prices were on course for their sixth straight day of falls, dragged lower by a surge in U.S. crude inventories, timid demand and doubts over the ability of producers to coordinate output cuts.

Starbucks shares were up 1.5 percent at $52.55 in premarket trading, a day after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Monster Beverage fell 6.6 percent to $131.0 after a host of brokerages cut their price targets on the energy drink maker's stock following its quarterly result.

GoPro slumped 19.2 percent to $9.65 after the wearable camera maker's forecast for the key holiday quarter missed analysts' estimates.

FireEye jumped 14.4 percent to $12.60 after the cybersecurity firm reported a higher-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue.

Futures snapshot at 7:12 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, with 130,564 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.06 percent, on volume of 20,713 contracts.

Dow e-minis were down 17 points, or 0.1 percent, with 25,058 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Anil D'Silva)