Futures flat before payrolls report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Friday ahead of a key report on the labor market, which could provide a clearer picture on the strength of the economic recovery.

The payrolls report from the Labor Department is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). Employers likely added 170,000 workers last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, up from March's 120,000.

The ADP National Employment Report showed Wednesday that private-sector hiring slowed in April, while initial jobless benefit claims had the biggest decline in nearly a year, a report indicated Thursday.

"The next two jobs reports are really important because the Fed's operation twist is ending and this is going to be big data for them as one of their mandates is employment," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

"That is why the jobs report is such a huge focus for investors -- because the market has been driven by the Fed's actions and this is one of the indicators that we can look at."

Investors may also hesitate to place big bets ahead of the weekend as elections in Europe could bring new leadership in France and Greece in a backlash against austerity measures in response to the euro zone's debt crisis.

"That is really big because theoretically, unlike here, the elected officials really do drive monetary policy," said Forrest.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> slipped 0.4 percent. <.EU>

S&P 500 futures added 0.3 point and were slightly above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 2 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1 point.

The S&P 500 suffered its first monthly decline of the year in April, and the benchmark index has struggled to convincingly pierce the key resistance level of 1,400 as investors have grappled with conflicting economic reports.

LinkedIn Corp jumped 10.4 percent to $120.73 in premarket trade after the social networking website raised its outlook after smashing first-quarter revenue and profit expectations.

Of the 391 companies in the S&P 500 index reporting results, 68.3 percent have exceeded estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning.

Estée Lauder Cos Inc reported higher quarterly profit on Friday, helped by big gains in sales of makeup and skin-care products at U.S. department stores that offset declines in European markets like France.

United Parcel Service Inc approved a new $5 billion share buyback and increased the amount of cash to about $5 billion to help fund its purchase of Dutch company TNT Express .

Fruit and fresh vegetable distributor Dole Food Co Inc said it may spin off one or more units as part of a strategic business review and reported a lower quarterly revenue.

Asian shares fell for a second straight day and industrial commodities such as oil and copper were on course for weekly losses as soft U.S. data stoked fresh concerns a recovery was faltering.

(Reporting By Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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