Dow Futures Fall 120 Pts; Earnings in Focus as Week Closes

U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally lower Friday, continuing the previous session’s selloff on fears of sharp monetary policy tightening while quarterly corporate earnings continue to emerge.

At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 120 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 14 points, or 0.3%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 36 points, or 0.3%.

The three main Wall Street indices closed substantially lower Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell offered up his most aggressive approach to taming inflation to date, largely cementing a 50-basis-point rate hike at the central bank’s May meeting.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 300 points, or 1.1%, lower, the broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite suffered the most, dropping 2.1%.

Looking at the week as a whole, the Dow is on course to register a gain of 1%, which would break a three-week losing streak, the S&P 500 is largely flat, and the Nasdaq Composite is down 1.3%, which would be its third consecutive losing week.

Away from future Fed moves, investors are also focusing on the new earnings season. So far, with a few notable exceptions, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) springs to mind, big companies have been relatively positive on the outlook for the current quarter and the remainder of the year.

More results are due Friday, with the focus on the likes of wireless carrier Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), credit card company American Express (NYSE:AXP) and manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON).

After the close Thursday, social media platform Snap (NYSE:SNAP) warned that the high inflation could hit revenue growth even as it forecast second-quarter daily active users at between 343 million and 345 million, above Wall Street estimates of 340 million.

Clothes retailer Gap (NYSE:GPS) cut its forecast for quarterly sales, citing execution challenges at its Old Navy brand, adding the head of this brand, Nancy Green, was leaving the company.

The economic data slate centers around the release of business activity data for April, with the manufacturing PMI seen falling back slightly from the previous month’s 58.8, and the Markit composite PMI dropping from March’s 57.7.

The equivalent data saw a two-speed Eurozone, with the bloc's dominant services sector seeing a sharp increase in activity as consumers shrugged off soaring prices, while manufacturers struggled on the back of supply chain disruptions.

Oil prices weakened Friday, weighed by prospects of interest rate hikes and slowing global growth, while China, the world’s largest crude importer, continued to struggle with a COVID-19 outbreak.

The week ends with the release of U.S. oil rig numbers from Baker Hughes and CFTC speculative positioning data. 

By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.5% lower at $102.21 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.4% to $106.82. Both benchmarks are on course for weekly losses of over 4%.

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