1. Jobs report: The U.S. jobs report for August will be released by the Department of Labor at 8:30 ET on Friday.
Economists are forecasting that employers added between 180,000 and 190,000 jobs during the month, down from 209,000 in July.
Harvey has caused temporary job losses along the Gulf Coast, but they won’t show up in Friday’s report.
The unemployment rate is currently 4.3%.
2. NAFTA talks: The Trump administration will start the second round of talks aimed at renegotiating NAFTA, the free trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Trump has threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, saying he would probably need to terminate the agreement to get what he considers a fair trade deal with Mexico and Canada. Trump believes the deal is unfair to American workers.
3. Harvey pain: U.S. gasoline prices rose further Thursday after flooding caused by Harvey forced the closure of major oil refineries.
Gas prices have climbed 10 cents a gallon, and some pumps in Texas have ran out of supplies.
The government tapped an emergency stockpile of oil to prevent the prices from spiking further. And a European flotilla is currently on its way to the U.S. with millions of gallons of gasoline.
4. Global market overview: Global markets are poised to end the week on positive note.
U.S. stock futures edged higher.
European markets opened in positive territory, following the trend set in Asia.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed 0.3% higher on Thursday, narrowly pushing its monthly win streak to five.
The S&P 500 added 0.6% and the Nasdaq gained 1% to close at a record high.
5. Stock market movers: Shares in Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped 3% in extended trading after the company announced it completed the spin-off of its software business.
6. Economics: The University of Michigan will release its latest economic sentiment report at 10:00 a.m.
Data showed that Italy’s economy grew 0.4% in the second quarter.
7. Coming this week:
Friday — Jobs report; NAFTA talks; The University of Michigan sentiment report