(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 8 mag - US futures were higher as investors tracked developments in the Gulf and the latest earnings ahead of a key jobs report.

Wall Street ended lower yesterday amid reports of renewed US-Iranian clashes. The Dow fell 0.6%, the S&P 500 lost 0.4% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 0.1%.

Oil prices rose after American and Iranian forces exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz but steadied when US president Donald Trump said the ceasefire between the two countries was still intact.

The moves followed comments from a senior Iranian official that Tehran was not willing to let Washington reopen Hormuz with an 'unrealistic plan'.

Today's payrolls report is expected to show 65,000 jobs were created in April, compared to 178,000 the previous month, with the unemployment rate remaining steady at 4.3%.

As concern over inflation mounts, a strong reading today could push expectations for interest rate cuts further out than they already are.

On the stocks front, shares in Cloudflare slumped 17% in premarket trade after the cloud services company said it planned to cut around 20% of its workforce and disappointed on second-quarter guidance. Shares in Trade Desk were down 13% after the ad-tech firm fell short on its outlook while CoreWeave dropped 7.6% after the cloud infrastructure technology company lifted its spending forecast for the year on higher costs.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 157.00 points, or 0.32%, S&P 500 futures were up 37.00 points, or 0.50%, while futures on.

the Nasdaq were up 209.25 points, or 0.73%.

(RADIOCOR) 08-05-26 13:57:44 (0402) 5 NNNN