Investing.com –Wall Street futures pointed to a flat to lower open on Friday after a strong finish in the prior session that turned the Dow and S&P positive for the month with the Nasdaq hitting a second record high close, while investors looked ahead to data on activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector and a series of appearances by members of the Federal Reserve.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 24 points, or 0.13%, by 6:55AM ET (10:55AM GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 4 points, or 0.19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 8 points, or 0.16%.
On the economic front, market participants waited for the lone publication of Markit’s preliminary manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for September at 9:45AM ET (13:45GMT).
Additionally, and in the wake of the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged this week, several policymakers were on tap to speak on Friday.
Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker will kick off a regional Fed presidents panel to discuss the role of the central bank in the community. Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart and Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester will participate.
Separately, Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan will make an appearance at the Texas Oil & Gas Association Lone Star Energy Forum.
Markets are currently pricing in just a 10.3% chance of a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in November, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. For December, odds stood at 53.1%.
Meanwhile, oil recovered from losses of more than 1% in early trading on Friday on reports that Saudi Arabia would be willing to cut production if Iran agrees to freeze output at current levels.
Sources told Reuters that the offer was made this month, though it wasn’t clear if this was the topic of private talks between the two countries taking place in Vienna on Thursday and Friday.
Earlier this year in Doha, OPEC discussions on a freeze broke down as Saudi Arabia insisted that Iran needed to join in the action and Tehran refused until it reached pre-sanction levels of output.
Major oil producers have planned informal talks on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algiers next week.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.45% to $46.11 by 6:56AM ET (10:56AM GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.17% to $47.73.
Elsewhere, European stocks moved lower as the euro zone and German business activity fell more than expected and the French economy unexpectedly contracted. The reading for the euro area composite PMI registered its weakest rate of expansion since the beginning of 2015.
Earlier, Asian stocks closed mostly lower on Friday, but held near 14-month highs in a week that saw stocks surge on the back of policy decisions from both the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve (Fed) .
The Nikkei 225 ended down 0.3% despite the fact the activity in the Japanese manufacturing sector unexpectedly returned to expansion in September.