Investing.com -- Investors look ahead to the publication of the latest U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, hoping that the data will provide some clues into the Federal Reserve's policy outlook. Elsewhere, Twitter threatens to bring a lawsuit against Meta over the Instagram owner's new Threads app, while the Chinese government reportedly gears up to impose a $1.1 billion fine on fintech titan Ant Group.
1. Nonfarm payrolls loom large
Attention will likely zoom in on the unveiling of the June nonfarm payrolls report later today, with investors attempting to suss out the state of the U.S. labor market and gauge the outlook for Federal Reserve policy.
The Labor Department data is anticipated to show that the U.S. economy added 225,000 roles last month, down from 339,000 in May. Growth in average hourly earnings is seen holding steady at 0.3% on a monthly basis, while the unemployment rate is expected to cool slightly to 3.6%.
Fed policymakers have suggested that loosening the tight jobs market is a major pillar of its recent year-long campaign of rate rises aimed at corralling elevated inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee voted to keep borrowing costs steady at their latest meeting, although the move was seen as a temporary measure to give officials more time to assess the impact of the increases on the broader economy.
Comments on Thursday from Dallas Fed president Lorie Logan, as well as minutes from the Fed's June meeting, suggest that the central bank may be about to restart its rate-hiking cycle yet again.
2. U.S. futures see little change ahead of jobs data
U.S. stock futures edged down on Friday, but stayed close to the flatline, as investors awaited the release of the latest jobs report.
At 05:02 ET (09:02 GMT), the Dow futures contract had lost 41 points or 0.12%, S&P 500 futures shed 5 points or 0.12%, and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped by 26 points or 0.18%.
The main indices ended the previous session in the red after fresh data showed that private payrolls increased by 497,000 last month, far outpacing economists' predictions of 228,000.
The strong print helped bolster expectations that the Fed will unveil another interest rate hike at its upcoming meeting later in July. According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, there is a more than 91.8% chance that the central bank will lift borrowing costs by a further 25 basis points at its next gathering, bringing the federal funds rate up to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%.
3. Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads
Twitter has reportedly threatened to bring legal action against Meta (NASDAQ:META) over the Facebook owner's new Threads app as the brewing rivalry between the two social media firms intensifies.
Threads, which was launched by Meta as a "friendly" alternative to Twitter earlier this week, netted over 30 million sign-ups in less than 24 hours, according to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
But, in a letter to Zuckerberg that was first reported on by the news outlet Semafor, a lawyer representing Twitter accused Meta of "unlawful misappropriation of [its] trade secrets." The letter claimed that Meta employed ex-Twitter staff with access to sensitive confidential information to build Threads, adding that Twitter intends to "strictly enforce its intellectual property rights."
In a post on Threads, Meta's communications director Andy Stone rebuked the accusations, saying that no one on the platform's engineering team is a former Twitter employee.
4. Ant Group faces $1.1B fine - Reuters
Ant Group (HK:6688) could be slapped with a fine worth at least CNY 8B (roughly $1.1B) from the Chinese government in the coming days, according to unnamed sources quoted by Reuters.
The penalty would be the biggest placed on a Chinese Internet company since regulators fined ride-sharing app Didi Global (OTC:DIDIY) for $1.2B last year. It would also conclude a multi-year revamp of Ant that was initiated by the People's Bank of China following the scrapping of the fintech firm's planned $37B flotation in 2020.
The end of the overhaul could mean that Ant will be able to secure a financial holding company license and, potentially, bolster a possible revival of an initial public offering. Before the IPO was scuttled, some investors had valued Ant at over $300B.
Neither Ant nor the PBoC were immediately available to comment to Reuters.
Hong Kong-listed shares in e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (HK:9988), an affiliate of Ant, surged following the report.
5. Samsung flags income slump
Samsung (KS:005930) has warned that operating profit in the second quarter dropped by 96%, in a sign of the effect weak demand for memory chips is having on the tech giant.
In a preliminary earnings statement, Samsung said that operating income slumped to 600B won in the April to June period, down from 14.1 trillion won a year earlier. It would be the lowest profit total since 2009, although the figure was still largely in line with analysts' estimates.
South Korea-listed shares in Samsung slipped by over 2% on Friday, although the stock has risen by more than 24% in the past year, thanks to hopes for a rebound in the prices of semiconductors. The Seoul-based company is the world's largest maker of memory chips.
Samsung is set to release its full quarterly results on July 27.