Bank earnings, Microsoft-Activision deal latest - what's moving markets

investing.com:

Investing.com — Major U.S. banks begin to deliver their second-quarter earnings reports, with investors keen to see how they have managed to weather the turmoil in the sector earlier this year. Elsewhere, U.S. regulators continue their legal push to temporarily halt the massive tie-up between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, while Hollywood actors go on strike.

1. Big banks report

The banking sector crisis that began earlier this year showed signs of subsiding, but the jury is still out on whether it has completely come to an end.

A series of second quarter results from the largest U.S. lenders — beginning with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), and Citigroup (NYSE:C) on Friday — could bring more clarity to this question.

Investors are thought to be keeping a particularly close eye on net interest margin: The difference between how much a bank makes from loans and securities and pays out for liabilities like deposits.

Higher interest rates, which typically push up interest payments, are anticipated to have boosted bank returns. But demand for loans has cooled, while banks have had to spend more to entice anxious customers to stick with their accounts instead of moving to higher-yielding money market funds. Net interest margin may be squeezed as a result.

At the same time, lucrative dealmaking has hit a dry patch and new capital requirements may force banks to pull back on lending. However, analysts expect that the biggest banks will still maintain solid results.

2. U.S. futures mixed ahead of bank earnings

U.S. stock futures were mixed on Friday, but hovered broadly around the flatline, as traders geared up for the first batch of bank earnings.

At 05:24 ET (09:24 GMT), the Dow futures contract had