US markets look to open slightly lower on Friday with after-hours earnings feeding into the two main fears of a higher dollar and lower oil hurting corporate profit growth.
American Express beat profit estimates but cited the strong dollar as significantly impacting international revenues. Oil services company Schlumberger NV (NYSE:SLB)saw revenues decline on reduced drilling as a result of the fall in Crude prices, though shares are expected to open higher on news it will cut another 11,000 jobs.
More earnings are to be reported on Friday from leading American companies including General Electric, Honeywell, Reynolds American and Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX).
The biggest driver for the market on Friday could be the latest US inflation data, which is expected to tick slightly higher and eat into a major barrier to the Fed raising interest rates this year.
Core inflation is expected to remain steady at 0.2% month-over-month growth in March. A jump in oil prices in the last month is expected to help accelerate headline growth to 0.3% from 0.2% in February.
The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, core PCE is below the Fed’s target of 2% but as long as inflation isn’t falling, the Fed may be able to look through it in order to get away from zero-interest rate policy.
Futures suggest the:
S&P 500 will open 1 point lower at 2,103 with the
Dow Jones expected to open 20 points lower at 18,086 and the
Nasdaq 100 5 points lower at 4,413.
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