Stock Futures Hold Gains After Jobs Data

FOX Business: The Power to Prosper

Stock-index futures remained solidly in the green after data on private-sector employment came in slightly ahead of expectations and traders mulled upbeat news on the Greek debt deal.

Today's Markets

As of 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 45 points to 12789, S&P 500 futures gained 4.5 points to 1347 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 10.5 points to 2600.

Rekindled fears about Greece's debt exchange, coupled with worries over the global economy, sent Wall Street on its worst fall since December 2011 on Tuesday. While Europe remains a key concern, the focus for the week is slowly transitioning to the U.S. labor market, which has slowly been showing signs of improvement.

The private sector may have added 208,000 jobs last month, economists said ahead of the 8:15 a.m. ET release of ADP's survey. The highly-important monthly employment report from the Labor Department is on tap for Friday, and ADP's private survey gives economists a hint of what may be expected. Indeed, in recent reports, the private sector, particularly small businesses, have led to jobs gains while the government sector has pulled back on its hiring.

Weekly employment data, which tend to be more volatile than the monthly reports, have shown a significant downward trend on the number of individuals filing for first-time unemployment benefits.

Market participants will also get a fresh read on productivity later in the morning, and credit conditions in the consumer market during the early afternoon.

On the European front, a private creditor group representing nearly 40% of of the total debt involved in the Greek bond exchange said it supports the deal that will slice the face value of its holdings by more than half. Included in the group are banking giants such as Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB), Societe Generale (NYSE:SCGLY), Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) and HSBC (NYSE:HBC).

Commodities markets rose mildly, helped by a weaker dollar. The greenback fell 0.12% against a basket of six world currencies tracked by the dollar index. Fresh data from the Energy Department on oil and gasoline inventories are expected at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The benchmark crude oil contract traded in New York climbed 48 cents, or 0.47%, to $105.18 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor RBOB gasoline jumped 0.92% to $3.259 a gallon.

In metals, gold gained $9.30, or 0.56%, to $1,681 a troy ounce. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose by 0.021-percentage point to 1.963%.

Corporate News

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to unveil the next version of its popular iPad a media event slated for later in the day.

Foreign Markets

European blue chips climbed 0.36%, the English FTSE 100 rose 0.36% to 5787 and the German DAX edged higher by 0.26% to 6650.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 ticked lower by 0.64% to 9576 and the Chinese Hang Seng slumped 0.86% to 20628.