By Ankika Biswas and Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set for a lower open on Friday as weak March retail sales data suggested the economy was losing steam, while upbeat earnings from a trio of big banks helped assuage fears of further stress in the sector.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter profit, signaling resilience following the banking crisis in March. Their shares rose between 2% and 6% in premarket trading.
"JPM is one of those household names in a sector that we were the most concerned about reporting better-than-expected earnings and that is certainly putting a bid in the stock and a bid in the market," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth in Boston.
The S&P 500 banks index has lagged the broader S&P 500 this year with a 13% decline, while the KBW Regional Banking index has already lost 20% in its worst performance since 2009.
Regional bank PNC Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:PNC) edged up 0.4% after its quarterly earnings.
Bank stocks lag S&P 500 this year, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjkjqgapr/Pasted%20image%201681463912992.png
Dampening the mood, however, data showed retail sales fell more than expected in March as consumers cut back on purchases of motor vehicles and other big ticket items, raising fears of an economic slowdown.
"The retail sales are kind of a disappointment," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. "The report indicates that the economy may actually slow more to the point where we have to start worrying about a recession more than just inflation."
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial closed at almost two-month highs on Thursday as data showed cooling inflation and a loosening labor market, fueling optimism that the Federal Reserve could be nearing the end of its aggressive interest rate-hike cycle.
Traders stuck to bets the U.S. central bank will raise its benchmark rate in May by another 25 basis points after the retail sales data.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic on Friday said another 25-bps rate hike can allow the U.S. central bank to end its tightening cycle with some confidence that inflation will steadily return to the 2% target.
Among other big-ticket earnings, healthcare conglomerate UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) beat estimates for quarterly profit and raised its annual forecast, pushing its shares up 0.4%.
BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK)'s quarterly profit also beat analysts' estimates as investors continued to pour money in the world's largest asset manager's various funds. The stock was up 2.2%.
At 8:56 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 19 points, or 0.06%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 9.75 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 103.75 points, or 0.79%.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) Co fell 6.1% after the planemaker halted deliveries of some 737 MAXs due to a supplier quality problem by Spirit AeroSystems.
Spirit AeroSystems' shares tumbled 14.7%.
Lucid Group Inc dropped 7.5% after the luxury electric-car maker reported first-quarter production and delivery figures that were lower than the preceding three months.