Morning Brief

On jobs day, can Wall Street keep its rally going?

Key Points

IN THE NEWS TODAY

U.S. stock futures were relatively flat, ahead of the 8:30 a.m. ET release of the government's May jobs report. Economists expect to see 164,000 nonfarm payrolls added last month, with the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.9 percent and average hourly earnings up 0.2 percent. (CNBC)

Expectations for job growth were muted due the temporary impact of the 45-day Verizon walkout. The striking workers, who returned to their jobs Wednesday, were regarded as unemployed because they did not receive a salary during the payrolls survey week. (Reuters)

The Nasdaq heads into Friday trading on a seven-session winning streak, and less than 1 percent away from joining the S&P 500 and Dow in the green for the year. Meanwhile, oil prices were steady after the OPEC meeting ended without a production agreement. (CNBC & Reuters)

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he would, indeed, vote for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. In a tweet, linking to an article in his hometown paper, Ryan wrote Trump would "help turn the House GOP's agenda into laws." (CNBC)


Citigroup (C) CEO Mike Corbat, speaking at a conference earlier this week, indicated the bank's second-quarter net income would be roughly 25 percent lower than the same period a year earlier. Citigroup is scheduled to report quarterly results next month. (Reuters)

JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is calling a British exit from the EU a "terrible deal for the British economy," saying the bank "may have no choice but to reorganize our business model" there if a Brexit were to take place. (FT-subscription)

Wal-Mart (WMT), at its annual meeting today, is expected to announce a grocery delivery pilot with Uber and Lyft, as the retail giant seeks to use its network of stores to better compete with Amazon (AMZN). (CNBC)

It appears Twitter (TWTR) had thought about joining the bidding for Yahoo (YHOO). Twitter reportedly met with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to explore a possible merger a few weeks ago, but dropped out of the process soon after the meeting. (New York Post)

In a race with Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google unit, an executive at Baidu (BIDU) said today the Chinese search-engine giant plans to mass produce a driverless car in five years. Baidu is already testing its autonomous vehicle in China. (WSJ)

Facebook's (FB) board has submitted a proposal to remove majority voting control from co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, should he ever decide to leave his management position. (Reuters)

BP (BP) has agreed to pay $175 million to settle a shareholder class action alleging the firm misled investors by understating the severity of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP already settled civil claims with the U.S. government and five states for $18.7 billion. (Reuters)

A doctor for media mogul Sumner Redstone said the ailing 93-year-old "retains the legal mental capacity to make the decisions" that he's made in recent weeks regarding oversight of his controlling interests in Viacom (VIAB) and CBS (CBS). (WSJ-subscription)

BY THE NUMBERS

In addition to the jobs report, the government also issues April trade deficit figures at 8:30 a.m. ET. Then at 10 a.m. ET, the Institute for Supply Management releases its May nonmanufacturing index, while the government puts out its April factory orders report.

Chicago Fed Charles Evans told CNBC there could be two interest rate hikes this year, if economic data continue to be favorable. But the timing of the moves won't prove to be crucial, he added. Central bankers raised rates for the first time in more than nine years in December.

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said he's not concerned about inflation remaining well below the ECB's target until 2018, adding policymakers were allowing stimulus measures introduced earlier this year to take effect.


STOCKS TO WATCH

Gap (GPS) reported a 6 percent drop in same store sales in May. The retailer, which also owns Banana Republic and Old Navy, called the month challenging, but saw an upswing heading into the Memorial Day weekend.

United (UAL) and Delta (DAL) are among suitors considering bids for Avianca, according to the Wall Street Journal. Revenue at Avianca, one of the largest airlines in Latin America, was $4.7 billion in 2014.

Toyota (TM) suspended production at three Japan plants affected by an explosion at a supplier's factory earlier this week. The automaker expects full production to resume by the beginning of next week.

McKesson (MCK) is considering a separation of its IT business, according to the Wall Street Journal. The drug distributor is said to be weighing a sale or a merger for the business.

Chemours (CC) strongly refutes a critical report from short-selling firm Citron, which said the chemical firm is "toxic from the balance sheet to the courtroom." Chemours was spun off from DuPont (DD) last year.

WATERCOOLER

Apple (AAPL) services have been restored, after an outage in the U.S that started after 3 p.m. ET. Some of iCloud's functions were back around 5:15 p.m. ET, while the App Store was back about an hour later. All services were resumed just before midnight. (CNBC)