Stock futures higher ahead of jobs data

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Friday ahead of the April payrolls report, which could affect when the U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time since 2006.

U.S. jobs are expected to have grown by 224,000 in April after the meager 126,000 increase in March, with unemployment falling to a seven-year low. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

A drop in the jobless rate to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent, as analysts expect, could bring forward bets on when the Fed will raise interest rates.

However, most of Wall Street's top banks see the Fed holding off until at least September before raising interest rates, based on Reuters' most recent poll.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits held near a 15-year low last week.

Wall Street closed higher on Thursday as tech stocks rebounded and a global bond sell-off eased as oil prices fell more than 3 percent.

JD.com shares rose 2.9 percent to $34.05 in premarket trading as China's No.2 e-commerce company's revenue topped analysts' expectation.

Alibaba was up 1.1 percent at $86.95, a day after the company's results also topped expectations.

Salesforce.com fell 4.1 percent to $71.44 after Reuters reported that Microsoft was currently not weighing an offer for the cloud software company.

Futures snapshot at 6:30 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 e-minis were up 3.25 points, or 0.16 percent, with 87,164 contracts changing hands.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 11 points, or 0.25 percent, in volume of 16,522 contracts.

Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 28 points, or 0.16 percent, with 16,031 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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