S&P, Nasdaq futures higher ahead of Fed speakers, consumer sentiment survey
Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures hovered around both sides of the flatline on Friday.
By 07:19 ET (12:19 GMT), the Dow futures contract had slid by 31 points or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had inched up by 8 points or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had gained 97 points or 0.5%.
The main averages on Wall Street rose in the prior session, with investors gauging the outlook for early Federal Reserve interest rate cuts following a mixed batch of economic data. Retail sales in the U.S. declined in January, leading to a drop in Treasury yields that suggested that some traders thought the report was a sign that the Fed may roll out rate cuts sooner than anticipated. The fall in yields was short-lived, however, in the wake of lower-than-expected weekly jobless claims and a surprise contraction in U.S. factory output last month.
At the close of trading on Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 had jumped by 0.6%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite had gained 0.3%, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen by 0.9%.
On Friday, traders will keeping an eye out for a consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan. Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly are also due to speak.
In a note, analysts at ING said they expect to hear more from Fed policymakers in the coming days about an anticipated «bumpy» path to the U.S. central bank's 2% inflation target. "[B]ut we still think this [is] the true direction of travel," the analysts added.
In individual stocks, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) posted fourth-quarter income that topped Wall Street estimates, sending shares sharply higher in premarket U.S. dealmaking, as the approval of spot-Bitcoin
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