By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a roughly flat opening on Friday, with stocks likely to show a lack of direction following the mixed performance seen in the previous session.
A mixed batch of earnings news from big-name companies may lead choppy trading on Wall Street early in the trading session.
While online retail giant Amazon (AMZN) is seeing significant pre-market strength after reporting better than expected quarterly earnings, oil giant Exxon Mobil (XOM) is likely to move to the downside after reporting earnings that missed analyst estimates.
Trading may also be impacted by reaction to a Commerce Department report showing a significant acceleration in the pace of U.S. economic growth in the second quarter.
Stocks turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday following the strong upward move seen on Wednesday.
While the Dow climbed 112.97 points or 0.4 percent to 25,527.07, the Nasdaq slumped 80.05 points or 1 percent to 7,852.18 and the S&P 500 dropped 8.63 points or 0.3 percent to 2,837.44.
A notable decline by Facebook (FB) weighed on the Nasdaq after the social media giant reported better than expected second quarter earnings but weaker than expected revenues.
Other stocks benefited from news President Donald Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to work towards eliminating trade barriers on industrial goods.
The U.S. and the EU have agreed to work for zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto goods. They also agreed to increase trade in services and agriculture, including greater U.S. soybean exports to the EU.
In U.S. economic news, first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. showed a modest increase in the week ended July 21st, according to a report released by the Labor Department.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 217,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 208,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 215,000 from the 207,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department showed a notable increase in new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods in the month of June.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders jumped by 1.0 percent in June after falling by a revised 0.3 percent in May. Economists had expected durable goods orders to spike by 3.0 percent.
Telecom stocks showed a significant move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Telecom Index up by 3.6 percent.
Semiconductor, housing and chemical stocks also saw considerable strength, while notable weakness was visible among gold and retail stocks.
