Stocks poised to open mixed
Wall Street futures were mixed ahead of the bell on Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped the 34,000 mark for the first time in history in the previous session amid a slew of positive U.S. economic data.
Strong quarterly reports from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL), PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), and UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) also helped push stocks higher yesterday.
As of 5:00 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were indicated 15.5 points, or 0.05% higher to 33,938.5. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.88 points, or 0.05% to 4,160.62 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gave away 39.62 points, or 0.28% to 13,974.38.
Morgan Stanley set to report earnings
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is expected to post another dazzling quarter on Friday morning, propelled by its investment banking and trading businesses. Analysts see the bank reporting earnings per share of $1.7 on revenue of $14.09 billion.
Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) will also report ahead of the market open, and analysts the company announcing earnings of 87 cents per share on revenue of $3.85 billion.
Other notable earnings to watch today include Ally Financial (NYSE:ALLY), Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU), and PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC).
Crude gains on upbeat economic data
Crude futures moved higher early Friday as data released Thursday showed U.S. retail sales rebounded 9.8% in March, helped by federal stimulus payments and increased coronavirus vaccinations.
Meanwhile, initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to 576,000 for the week ended April 10 compared to expectations of 710,000.
By 5:00 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 23 cents, or 0.36% to $63.69 a barrel. International Brent crude futures were at $67.20, up 26 cents, or 0.39% a barrel.
