U.S. Futures Edge Higher Ahead of Housing, PMI Data

By Peter Nurse   

Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally higher Friday, continuing the previous session’s rebound ahead of housing data and key business surveys.

At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 120 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 12 points, or 0.3%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 30 points, or 0.2%.

Wall Street ended a three-day losing streak on Thursday, with the broad-based S&P 500 closing 1.1% higher, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.8%, helped by healthy gains from the likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). 

Yet, despite these gains, the Dow is on track to see its fourth negative week out of the past five weeks and the S&P 500 is on pace for its second negative week in a row. The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, is positioned to break a 4-week losing streak.

Investors have been fretting this week over the minutes from the April Federal Reserve meeting which showed that the FOMC members had started discussions about potentially tapering the central bank’s asset purchase programs.

Data showed a new pandemic-low in weekly jobless claims on Thursday, but the rise in continuing claims also played into the idea that the central bank will maintain its ultra-easy monetary policies for some time to come.

Friday’s data slate includes existing home sales for April at 10 AM ET, which are expected to show a slight improvement as the spring selling season gets going, as well as May purchasing manager indices data, 15 minutes earlier. PMI releases from Europe earlier in the session showed the region’s services sector coming back to life as manufacturing cooled.

In corporate news, Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) could be in focus after its quarterly report after the bell on Thursday detailed record quarterly sales as the global chip shortage boosted its equipment business.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) announced a new $20 billion share repurchase program late Thursday after the hardware retailer posted stellar results earlier in the week.

Deere (NYSE:DE) is the highlight of a dwindling bunch of companies reporting Friday, with the farm equipment manufacturer raising its full-year profit forecast, boosted by surging agriculture markets.

Oil prices gained Friday, rebounding after the week’s sharp losses as traders started to factor in the potential return of Iranian crude supplies.

Iran and world powers have been in talks since April on reviving the 2015 deal which limited Iran’s nuclear program, and appear to have made progress this week. If the United States signs off on any deal, lifting sanctions on Iran’s oil sector could see around 1 million barrels of oil a day reentering the global market.

U.S. crude futures traded 1.4% higher at $62.83 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.3% to $65.93. Both contracts are still down around 4% this week and on track to post their biggest weekly loss since March.

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,878.90/oz, but are still on track for a third consecutive weekly rise, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.2217.

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