Futures up: S&P 500 0.17%, Nasdaq 0.22%, Dow 0.1%
US job growth beats expectations in June
Tripadvisor gains on report Starboard Value built stake
Synopsys, Cadence rise as US lifts China export curbs
Updates with prices before the opening bell
By Sruthi Shankar and Nikhil Sharma
July 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street was on track to open higher on Thursday after a stronger-than-expected jobs report pointed to resilience in the labor market amid concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies.
Data showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 147,000 jobs last month after an upwardly revised 144,000 advance in May, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls rising 110,000. Unemployment fell to 4.1% last month, against expectations of a rise to 4.3%.
"We were all expecting the hard data would start to show some cracks, and we really haven't seen that with the jobs report coming in much better than expected," said Brian Klimke, chief market strategist at Cetera Investment Management LLC.
"That just puts the Fed on pause and gives it more time to wait right now because the labor market is really resilient."
Traders quickly priced out chances of an interest-rate cut in July, with the odds of a 25-basis-point cut in September at 72%, according to CME Group's Fedwatch tool, down from 74% a week ago.
The data was released a day early because of the Independence Day holiday on Friday. Trading volumes are expected to be light with markets closing early, at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Another dataset showed the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell to a six-week low last week. The S&P Global and ISM services sector activity readings for June are due later in the day.
The S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC closed at record highs on Wednesday, boosted by gains in technology stocks and a trade agreement between the United States and Vietnam that eased concerns about prolonged tariff tensions.
The blue-chip Dow .DJI closed 1.35% below all-time highs touched in December.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives advanced President Donald Trump's massive tax-cut and spending bill toward a final yes-or-no vote, appearing to overcome internal party divisions over its cost.
The legislation is expected to add $3.4 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, according to nonpartisan analysts.
By 8:54 a.m. ET (1254 GMT), S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 10.5 points, or 0.17%, Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 added 49.75 points, or 0.22%, and Dow e-minis YMcv1 climbed 45 points, or 0.1%.
Shares of chip design software firms Synopsys SNPS.O and Cadence Design Systems CDNS.O climbed 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively, in premarket trading after the U.S. lifted export restrictions on chip design software to China, signaling a thaw in trade tensions between the world's top two economies.
Tripadvisor TRIP.O climbed 8.1% after the Wall Street Journal reported activist investor Starboard Value had built a more than 9% stake in the online travel firm.
Datadog DDOG.O jumped 10.4% after the cloud security firm was set to replace Juniper Networks on the S&P 500.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com;))
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