Futures edge higher before payrolls; no positions open, evening watchlist set

At 06:28 UTC US index futures are about 0.25% above Thursday's cash close: estimated cash levels are US 500 7,684.8 (from future 7,746.5), US Tech 100 30,578 (from 30,866) and US 30 51,074 (from 51,426). VIX closed at 16.4, the dollar index trades at 101.86 and the 10-year yield sits near 5.24%. The day hinges on US payrolls at 12:30 UTC, an hour before the cash open. This slot opens no new ideas by design and no positions are open. Yesterday's Walmart short expired without touching stop or target; our post-mortem notes that its own 15-minute invalidation fired at 18:15 UTC and could not be acted on. Screening on clean daily bars: US 500, Apple, Eli Lilly and Exxon sit under 0.5 ATR from their 20-day average (noise); US Tech 100 (1.85 ATR), US 30 (1.78), JPMorgan (1.86) and Home Depot (2.87) are too stretched. Inside the band and on the evening watchlist: NVIDIA, Microsoft and Caterpillar above the average; Tesla, Visa, Walmart and Coca-Cola below it, the last three close to the 1.5 ATR limit.