U.S. stock futures dropped on Friday after a U.S. government report showed that July payroll figures missed expectations, indicating the stock market would open lower. U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose 32,000, and the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent in June, according to data from the Labor Department. Median forecasts were for nonfarm payrolls to rise 228,000 last month, with an unemployment rate at 5.6 percent. "This is shockingly low and that's two months in a row now," said Robert MacIntosh, chief economist at Eaton Vance Management. "This is supposed to help bonds a lot. It's probably not great for stocks." S&P 500 futures for the September contract fell 9.5 points to 1069, 11 points below fair value, accounting for dividends, interest rates and time to expiration on the contract.
Dow Jones industrial index futures fell 75 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 15.5 points. The data came as crude oil futures approached $45 a barrel, adding pressure to equities a day after the Standard & Poor's 500 index had its steepest decline since Sept. 24, 2003. The Dow industrials average had its second sharpest drop this year. Oil prices hit a record high on Thursday for the fifth consecutive trading session. September U.S. light crude futures on NYMEX were trading at $44.26, down 16 cents, early on Friday. In corporate news, shares of MCI Inc., the second-largest U.S. long-distance company, rose to $16.49 on the INET electronic brokerage from their $13.84 close after the company said it would begin paying a quarterly dividend of 40 cents a share in September, part of a plan to return $2.2 billion to shareholders. Nvidia Corp. shares fell 26 percent on INET after it posted a sharply lower quarterly profit on Thursday, as sales of its graphics microprocessors declined. Nvidia fell to $10.77 on the INET electronic brokerage from $14.56 at the prior close.///www.reuters.com