Dow Jones futures holding modest gains ahead of US jobs report this afternoon

Nearly three hours in and European stocks are still in the red. The DAX had a look at the 23k handle earlier and rebounded, but that rebound is petering right now. Meantime, the US futures are in the green and holding out for a prospect of a higher opening later on. Ahead of that opening we will of course get the US monthly jobs report, at 1.30pm GMT. So, let me have a look at what the markets expect on that. The general consensus is for the underlying rate of unemployment to remain steady at 4% in February. Non-farm payrolls are forecast to rise by around 170k last month, up from the 143k reported in January. Average wages are forecast to remain around 4.1% annualised. Of course within all that lot there is plenty of room for a surprise or two and it is that which if seen might decide what kind of reaction were get in the US equity futures. Yesterday, the Dow Jones was the best performing major US index in relative terms, but it still handed back 427 points by the close. The low point seen was set at 42,381 and the index closed at 42,579. It might be priced right now to open a little higher, but any significant disappointment from that jobs number and it will surely not. The Dow Jones is currently priced to reopen around 42,645