U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly weaker open Friday, as investors awaited the start of second-quarter earnings from some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Meanwhile, oil prices climbed as investors watched for potential escalation of the days-old war between Israel and Gaza.
How are stock-index futures trading?
- S&P 500 futures ES00, -0.29% slipped 0.1%, or 4.5 points, to 4,376
- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00, -0.09% fell 2 points to 33,795
- Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, -0.58% fell 0.2%, or 39.25 points, to 15,277
On Thursday, the S&P 500 SPX slipped 0.6% to finish at 4,349.61, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA dropped 173.73 points, or 0.5% to 33,631.14. The Nasdaq Composite COMP fell 0.6% to 13,574.22. The losses broke a four-day winning streak for those indexes.
What’s driving markets?
Earnings are front and center for investors with BlackRock Inc. BLK, -1.01%, Citigroup Inc. C, , JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.23% and Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, +0.13% all due to report third-quarter earnings reports, marking the start of reporting season. UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH, +0.27% is also scheduled to report.
Investors will be closely watching what JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has to say about the economy and consumers.
Read: Q3 earnings are here: S&P 500 heads toward year of profit declines as JPMorgan, and Delta report this week
But investors are facing the fourth-straight quarter of earnings declines overall for the S&P 500, with third-quarter per-share profit collectively set to fall 0.3%, according to FactSet.
Investors may need an earnings boost to pick markets up after Thursday’s decline, which followed data showing elevated consumer prices. Data due Friday includes September import prices at 8:30 a.m. Eastern and a preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for October at 9 a.m. Eastern. Philadelphia President Patrick Harker is due to speak at 9 a.m. Eastern.
CPI data pressured bond yields higher on Thursday, though that move was partially reversing on Friday as Israel’s military ordered more than 1 million people to leave Gaza, raising fears a ground offensive could be under way soon.
The United Nations has warned that such an evacuation was not just impossible, but disastrous. The development comes nearly a week after an attack on Israel that has left more 2,800 people dead on both sides of the conflict.
The yield for the 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y was down 6 basis points at 4.643%, and that of the 2-year BX:TMUBMUSD02Y was down 3 basis points to 5.037%. Yields move inversely to price.
A shift into bonds signaled some investors are seeking safe-haven assets, with gold prices GC00, +0.91% climbing $ 13.30 to $ 1,896 an ounce, a gain of around 2.7% so far this week.
Crude oil prices CL.1, +3.93% rose $ 2.32, or 2.8%, to $ 85.23 a barrel amid those increasing tensions in the Middle East.