By CNNMoney.com staff
August 06, 2010: 07:34 AM EDT
U.S. stock futures were flat early Friday, as investors braced for a key reading on the jobs situation.
Dow Jones industrial average futures were a shade lower, while Nasdaq and S&P 500 edged higher. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.
Stocks ended a listless session modestly lower Thursday as investors focused on the job market amid signs of a sluggish economic recovery.
"Investors are waiting for the jobs number, and the feeling is that there could be some bad news," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "The focus will be on private sector job growth, but the potential dark side of the report is significant layoffs of more municipal workers."
Jobs: Investors have moved to the sidelines ahead of the Labor Department's July jobs report, due out at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday.
Economists expect that the overall labor market shed 87,000 jobs last month, but they are looking for a gain of 83,000 positions in the private sector.
The unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 9.6% from 9.5%.
Companies: Fannie Mae said it lost $1.2 billion in the second quarter, down significantly from an $11.5 billion loss in the prior quarter. The government-run mortgage finance company said that its financial condition has vastly improved over previous quarters, but it still requested more government assistance.
AIG is expected to post a quarterly profit when it releases its latest financial results before the opening bell. Analysts, however, don't expect the company to offer much guidance about when it plans to pay back the government for bailing it out.
World markets: Shares in Europe headed higher in morning trading. Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 were all up about 0.4%.