Investing.com – U.S. futures were slightly higher on Friday, as investors look ahead to data on the strength of the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 futures rose two points or 0.07% to 2,844.50 as of 6:57 AM ET (10:57 GMT) while Dow futures increased 26 points or 0.10% to 25,551.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 18 points or 0.25% to 7,449.25
Second-quarter gross domestic product data is released at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT). Investors will watch the numbers closely for signs of a strengthening economy, with traders expecting the U.S. to register its strongest expansion in four years.
Strong economic growth would support expectations for the Federal Reserve to continue gradually increasing interest rates.
In earnings news, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) slumped 16.16% in premarket trading after its financial results came in lower than expected. Investors will also be looking to earnings results from Dow components Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon (NYSE:XOM).
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was up 4.76% after its operating income beat analyst expectations, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 0.60% . Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rallied 0.96% despite losing nearly 19% in trading on Thursday, after the company warned on Wednesday that margins could fall due to privacy safeguard costs and slowing usage of the site.
Elsewhere Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) slumped 6.65% after reporting slower than expected sales growth to data centers and delaying the release of its next-generation chips until the end of 2019.
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 67 points or 0.52% while in France the CAC 40 increased 14 points points or 0.26% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 44 points or 0.58%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 17 points or 0.49% while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up 87 points or 0.89%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.61% to $1,218.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.20% to $69.47 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.06% to 94.63.