Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Friday suggesting the Dow could break the longest winning in streak in 30 years as investors looked ahead to an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump and data on the housing market along with a revision for February’s consumer confidence.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 88 points, or 0.42%, by 6:55AM ET (11:55GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 12 points, or 0.49%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 31 points, or 0.59%.
U.S. stocks looked set to take a breather on Friday after the Dow Jones hit its 10th straight record close a day earlier, its longest streak since 1987 and the S&P 500 hit an all-time high, thought the Nasdaq Composite did snap a 15-day winning streak.
After Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he planned to pass a “very significant” tax reform plan by Congress’ August recess but remained vague on the specifics, market participants may opt to take money off the table as they wait for Trump to address of a joint session of Congress next Tuesday in the hopes that the President would provide more details on policy.
On Friday, Trump was scheduled to sign an executive order at 12:00PM ET (17:00GMT) although it wasn’t clear what theme the President would tackle, as a White House official indicated Wednesday that a new travel ban would be delayed until next week.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday evening that Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, pushed to exclude criticism of a global climate deal from a forthcoming executive order.
Trump was expected to sign at least two orders “within days” aimed at unraveling former President Barack Obama's environmental and climate regulations, according to the financial newspaper.
On the data front, market players looked ahead to a fresh reading on the housing sector with the release of new home sales for January, as well as a revision to the February Michigan consumer sentiment both out at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
Also on the docket, investors also looked ahead to the latest reading on U.S. drilling activity from Baker Hughes.
The oil field services provider said last week the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by six, the fifth weekly increase in a row. That brought the total count to 597, the most since November 2015.
In the meantime, oil prices fell on Friday after official data released late on Thursday showed stockpiles rose last week for a seventh straight week, although losses were muted as inventory growth was well below expectations.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.44% to $55.21 by 6:56AM ET (11:56GMT), while Brent oil lost 0.53% to $56.28.
Despite the losses on Friday, bullish sentiment continued with black gold holding near highs not seen since July 2015 as market participants placed bets on the agreement between the world's largest exporters to cut output and thus reduce a global supply glut.
According to Reuters data, fund managers now hold more Brent oil futures and options contracts than at any time on record, equivalent to some 480 million barrels of oil and nearly double the amount held just two months ago.
On the company front, investors looked forward to a long week of retail earnings.
Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) may see upside Friday after reporting earnings-per-share of $1.37, beating consensus by five cents.
JC Penney (NYSE:JCP) was also on tap to report earnings before the bell.