ZACKS·2026-02-04 16:22Market Overview - Pre-market futures have improved from early lows, influenced by Q4 earnings reports and private-sector job numbers, with the Dow up 142 points and the S&P 500 up 10 points, while the Nasdaq is down 66 points and the Russell 2000 is up 12 points [1] Private Sector Employment - Private-sector payrolls for January reported by ADP show an increase of only 22K, significantly below expectations, and down from a revised 37K the previous month, marking the first back-to-back monthly job gains since April and May of the previous year [2] - The services sector accounted for most of the job gains, adding 21K jobs, while goods-producing sectors only added 1K jobs. Healthcare Services led with 74K hires, followed by Financial Services with 14K and Construction with 9K. Professional & Business Services lost 57K jobs, and Manufacturing has not seen positive job growth since early 2024 [2][3] - A new ADP methodology indicates a downward revision of 212K fewer hires for the entire year of 2025, reducing total private-sector hires from 771K in 2024 to 398K in 2025 [4] Earnings Reports - Eli Lilly & Co. reported a 7.9% earnings surprise with earnings of $7.54 per share and revenues of $19.29 billion, also exceeding estimates by 7.9%, driven by strong performance in diabetes and weight loss drugs [6][7] - AbbVie reported earnings of $2.71 per share, beating estimates of $2.66, while Novartis reported $2.03 per share, surpassing consensus by 4 cents. Novartis shares rose 1.6%, while AbbVie shares fell 3% [7] - Phillips 66 reported earnings of $2.47 per share, exceeding expectations of $2.11 and significantly improving from a loss of $0.15 per share in the same quarter last year, with shares up 1.3% in pre-market trading [8]