By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening mixed Friday, with the tech sector likely to underperform on the back of some disappointing earnings reports.
At 7:05 AM ET (1105 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 55 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded 4 points, or 0.1%, higher, while Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 30 points, or 0.2%.
The major averages on Wall Street have been on the rise of late, with the broad-based S&P 500 closing 0.3% higher on Thursday at a new record peak, its seventh consecutive positive session.
Helping the tone has been a broadly positive start to the third-quarter earnings season. FactSet reported Thursday that over 80% of the 101 S&P 500 companies which have reported so far beat expectations.
However, that mood partly changed late Thursday after Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) reported disappointing third-quarter sales after the close, causing its stock to fall nearly 10% in premarket trading. The semiconductor company cited supply shortages which were holding back sales of the company's flagship processor chips.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares were also under pressure early Friday in a read across from Snap's (NYSE:SNAP) badly-received third-quarter numbers, with the social media giant blaming Apple’s privacy changes for its poor advertising numbers.
There are more earnings to digest Friday, including numbers from financial services company American Express (NYSE:AXP), conglomerate Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON) and oil services firm Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB), while WeWork (NYSE:WE) will also be in the spotlight after a solid debut on Thursday. Digital World Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:DWAC) leaped another 60% in premarket trading in excitement at its merger with Donald Trump's new social media holding, glossing over Trump's - at best - mixed record at creating value for outside stakeholders.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is due to speak at 11 AM ET and his comments will be scanned for hints as to the future pace of interest rate hikes, while October PMI data for both the manufacturing and services sectors will also be studied.
Crude prices pushed higher Friday, rebounding after the previous session’s selling as the market reassessed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Thursday comments that OPEC+ could increase supply by more than had previously been announced.
These comments came after oil rallied to the highest level since 2014 earlier this week as a global energy crunch, prompted by coal and gas shortages in China, India and Europe, led to power providers switching to diesel and fuel oil. This has coincided with a broader economic recovery from the pandemic.
The Baker Hughes’ rig count and the CFTC’s weekly data on positioning later in the day will also be of interest.
By 7:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.6% higher at $83.03 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.7% to $85.23.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,793.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% higher at 1.1639.