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Key points:
- S&P 500 futures drop ahead of bell
- Jobs data to spark broad volatility
- Earnings season cranks up next week
December jobs are expected to come in at 164,000. Earnings season is next week and banks will kick it off.
- S&P 500 futures were looking a bit lousy Friday morning as investors were getting ready to come back to work after Thursday was a day off in honor of the passing of the 39th US President Jimmy Carter. There isn’t much time to scramble around as today’s economic calendar brings a top-of-the-list report. The nonfarm payrolls, or simply jobs data, will show how many people found jobs in December.
- Analysts have pinned hopes on the figure of 154,000 new hires, a marked downgrade from November’s 227,000. Still, some speculate that this figure might be on the low end due to the month’s holidays and potential extra effort by employers to recruit seasonal workers. In case of a surprise readout — a figure that’s too low or too high above the consensus view — stocks might get rattled due to elevated volatility.
- Looking ahead to next week, it’s the start of the earnings season and — as is tradition — Wall Street’s top banks will be the ones to crank it up. Bellwethers of consumer and business sentiment JPMorgan
JPM, Wells Fargo 
WFC, and Goldman Sachs 
GS all provide their December-quarter updates on January 15. UnitedHealth 
UNH, the infamous health insurer, will be another highlight of the week.
