US stock futures were muted on Friday as investors awaited July's jobs report.Market expectations will be influenced by the Federal Reserve's asset purchase pace.As worries lingered about China's government regulation and the Delta COVID variant, Asian stocks suffered.Subscribe to our daily newsletter 10 Things Before The Opening Bell.Futures in the US pointed to a muted stock market open Friday, as investors awaited their monthly jobs report. Asian equities struggled due to worries about the spread and expansion of the Delta variant.Futures that are linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 stock indexes, as well as the Nasdaq Composite, were all down 0.1% at 4:30 AM. ET suggests a flat trading start later in the day.The major stock indexes finished the Thursday session higher with the S&P 500 (record-high) and the Nasdaq (record-high) at the top.Investors are anxiously awaiting the release of July nonfarm payrolls data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. ET ET.Reuters polled economists and found that 870,000 nonfarm jobs were created last July, a higher figure than June's 850,000. Analyst targets vary widely.Jeffrey Halley, OANDA's senior market analyst, stated in a note that equity prices will likely rise as there are bullish cases on either a higher or lower number. A firm number will continue to see the US dollar climb, but a weak print will cause it to sink."The US dollar index climbed 0.17% to 92.41 and was at its highest level since 0.1% against the Japanese yen.Neel Kashkari, Minneapolis Fed President, stated on Thursday that the "frustrating Delta variant" could put a kink in the labor market's recovery and affect the timeline for slowing down the central bank’s asset purchase program.Asia investors are closely monitoring the spread of the Delta-variant virus in China. There have been more than 300 cases. Larger-scale lockdowns could be triggered by a larger number of cases. This, along with fears that Beijing might intensify its regulatory crackdown, drove most Asian stocks into negative territory for the week.The Shanghai Composite dropped 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.1%. However, Tokyo's Nikkei rose 0.3%.European markets were mixed. UK stocks opened lower yesterday after the Bank of England remained neutral on monetary policy yesterday as expected.London's FTSE 100 lost 0.2%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.1%. Frankfurt's DAX grew 0.1%.Gold was hurt by the strength of the dollar. Spot prices of the precious metal dropped 0.4% to $1801.Although oil prices rose, they are still expected to suffer their largest weekly loss since October because of rising COVID-19 counts and an increase in US crude stockspiles. Brent Crude rose 0.6%, to $71.78 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate was 0.5% higher at $69.50 per barrel.After Thursday's EIP1559 network upgrade, Ether gained 5% to $2,771 per coin. This is expected to have a positive impact on DeFi usage. Bitcoin gained 6% to reach $40,802.Read more: Goldman Sachs recommends that you buy these 38 stocks, which offer strong sales growth and margins and are well-positioned within their industries for a slowdown.
