By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Friday, handing back some recent gains as investors digest a flurry of earnings results, particularly from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), ahead of some key inflation data.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 20 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 4 points, or 0.1%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 16 points, or 0.1%.
The main indices closed higher Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 0.7%, the S&P 500 gaining just under 0.7% to finish at a new closing high, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite up just over 0.2%.
Amazon reported earnings after the close of trading Thursday, and continued the example of peers like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) by posting record profits from pandemic shopping, sending its stock 2.4% higher premarket, to a new record high. The e-commerce giant also indicated sales would keep growing even as the U.S. economy reopened and customers ventured out to shops.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), by contrast, disappointed. The social media giant only matched expectations with its revenue and user numbers, and offered lukewarm revenue guidance for the second quarter, warned of rising costs.
Earnings continue to flow Friday, with the likes of Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL), Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) scheduled to report. The oil majors could struggle to match the blockbuster numbers offered up by their European peers given the U.S. winter storm that halted output in some of the southern states.
Turning to economic data, investors will keep a wary eye on the Federal Reserve’s favorite gauge of inflation, with personal consumption expenditures figures due at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT).
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has repeatedly stated that the central bank would need to see inflation around 2% for a prolonged period before it decided to tighten its very accommodative monetary policies, but the release could still provide a valuable indication of how quickly prices are rising.
The economic news out of Europe was mixed, as the eurozone economy contracted 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, sliding into recession as widely expected. This was mainly caused by a 1.7% quarterly slump in its biggest economy Germany, though mitigated by 0.4% quarterly growth in second biggest France.
Oil prices weakened Friday, handing back some of the week’s hefty gains as signs of economic recovery stoked optimism of a strong rebound in global demand this year.
U.S. crude futures traded 1.8% lower at $63.83 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.6% to $66.97. Both contracts are still up around 3% this week, after earlier climbing to their highest levels in seven weeks.
Traders will be keeping an eye out for the Baker Hughes weekly oil rigs count, due for release later Friday, a gauge of future U.S. supply.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,768.90/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% lower at 1.2084.