us stock futures traded flat to lower on friday as investors awaited november jobs data at the end of a volatile week driven by headlines over the omicron coronavirus variant and hawkish comments from federal reserve chair jerome powell on thursday the dow industrials djia rose 61775 points or 18 to 3463979 the best percentage gain since march 5 2021 and the best point gain since nov 9 2020 the sp 500 index spx closed up 14 to 457710 its best day since oct 14 the nasdaq composite comp added 08 to 1538132 all three indexes are reflecting a loss of under 1 for the week thus far the russell 2000 index rut gained 27 to finish at 220633 a day after hitting its first correction since june 2020 after several days of volatile action major indexes logged positive closes for the first time in three sessions on thursday gains were driven by hopes that the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes covid19 will prove less deadly even if more transmissible and less disruptive for the global economy investors learned of a second us case of the omicron variant from a minnesota resident visiting new york who reportedly showed mild symptoms the us economy swings squarely into focus on friday with november nonfarm payrolls that are expected to show 573000 new jobs created up slightly from 531000 the prior month according to economists polled by the wall street journal those numbers are due at 830 am eastern time alongside the unemployment rate and average hourly earnings the data have become even more important after the fed’s powell this week spoke of a strong economy and the prospect of a quicker taper which could speed up interestrate hikes “if the virus news ticker stays quiet a higher us nonfarm payrolls print could see equity gains capped with a slightly lower or on target print of 550k not enough to entirely remove faster fedtaper fears” said jeffrey halley senior market analyst at oanda in a note to clients want intel on all the news moving markets sign up for our daily need to know newsletter investors will also hear from st louis fed president james bullard at 915 am eastern time with the institute for supply management’s services index for november october factory orders and a revision to core capital goods all due at 10 am eastern while markets bounced thursday volatility remains high said ipek ozkardeskaya senior analyst at swissquote in a note to clients “that’s a sign that the stress in the market is not over just yet because the root cause of the latest market selloff is not only omicron it’s also the fear of seeing the markets left with less federal reserve support due to fed’s willingness to address the high inflation issue moving forward and that remains a major downside risk to the risky assets” said ozkardeskaya shares of chinese companies may be in focus on friday after chinese ridehailing giant didi global didi said late thursday it will delist from the new york stock exchange following pressure from the chinese government among other assets oil prices continued to rise with west texas intermedicate crude cl00 up 25 to 6814 a barrel and global benchmark brent brn00 rising 23 to 7128 a barrel on thursday the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and their allies together known as opec decided to rollover their existing production policy and boost output at the start of next year even amid concerns the omicron variant could hurt demand