Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Friday, as markets prepared to gauge consumer confidence stateside and looked ahead to any clues on U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for trade deals as he meets up Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 26 points, or 0.13%, by 6:52AM ET (11:52GMT), the S&P 500 futures inched up 1 point, or 0.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 7 points, or 0.13%.
After closing at record highs the prior session as Trump hinted that tax cuts were on the docket, market participants continued to watch the U.S. President’s latest moves for clues on how he would deal with new trade agreements.
U.S. President Donald Trump changed tack and agreed to honor the "one China" policy during a phone call with China's leader Xi Jinping, a major diplomatic boost for Beijing which brooks no criticism of its claim to self-ruled Taiwan and suggested an easing of tensions between the world’s two major economies.
Trump angered Beijing in December by talking to the president of Taiwan and saying the United States did not have to stick to the policy, under which Washington acknowledges the Chinese position that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister (PM) Shinzo Abe will head to Washington on Friday to meet up with Trump in an encounter that is widely expected to center on trade discussions between the world’s first and third largest economies.
The dollar hit its highest level in 10 days against the yen and a basket of currencies ahead of a meeting of the U.S. and Japanese leaders on Friday, putting it on course for its best week since mid-December.
All though the meeting between Trump and Abe was expected to focus on trade deals the U.S. President had lumped Japan into a group of countries that he said were taking advantage by devaluing their currencies.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last up 0.11% at 100.77 by 6:53AM ET (11:53GMT), after hitting a session high of 100.87 overnight, its best level since January 30.
Meanwhile, markets awaited data that could sway the strength of the greenback with the major focus on the preliminary University of Michigan February consumer sentiment index scheduled for release at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
Also on tap, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its indices of export and import prices for January at 8:30AM ET (15:30GMT).
No major companies were scheduled to release earnings on Friday as the fourth quarter reporting season moved into the final stretch. 354 firms of the S&P 500, or 71%, had already reported earnings this season with 68% topping earnings estimates on 7.3% growth and 51% beating sales forecasts on 4.9%, according to The Earnings Scout (ES).
These analysts warned that earnings estimates for the first quarter continued to move lower, currently at 9.56% growth, compared to 10.0% last week and 12.28% on election night.
“While S&P earnings growth acceleration will continue into the first quarter, the absolute level of growth is likely to peak next quarter,” ES stated.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher on Friday as the International Energy Agency said that OPEC compliance with the agreement to reduce production had reached a record 90%.
Sources from Reuters said that the cartel showed an even higher compliance of 92%.
Still, market players eagerly watched for signs of how other producers were responding to the reduction by ramping up their own production and will pay close attention to Baker Hughes’ data on U.S. drilling out later on Friday.
The oilfield services provider said last week that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. had increased by 17, the 13th gain in 14 weeks.
That brought the total count to 583, the most since November 2015.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.89% to $53.47 by 6:53AM ET (11:53GMT), while Brent oil traded up 1.06% to $56.23.