Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a mixed open on Friday as investors looked ahead to first quarter GDP data and earnings from Amazon and Microsoft supported tech stocks.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 79 points, or 0.32%, by 6:52AM ET (10:52GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 5 points, or 0.18%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gained 14 points, or 0.20%
Gains in the Nasdaq were expected on Friday after stellar results were reported after the prior day’s close.
Shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) rallied around 7% to in pre-market trade on Friday, after the e-commerce giant posted earnings that beat on both the top and bottom line.
Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) also gained nearly 4% in pre-market trade on Friday after the computer giant also topped consensus expectations.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) also delivered and saw shares jump more than 5% pre-market after reporting the biggest-ever quarterly jump in its data center business.
Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Exxon (NYSE:XOM) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) will be among other firms releasing quarterly earnings before Friday’s opening bell.
With nearly 50% of S&P 500 firms having released their reports, more than 70% of those have beat on both the top and bottom line and the first quarter is showing the best rates of growth in sales and profit in any quarter since 2010.
On the economic front, investors looked ahead to the preliminary reading of first-quarter U.S. growth due at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) Friday to gauge if the world's largest economy is strong enough to withstand multiple rate hikes in the coming months.
The report is expected to show growth in the January-March period slowing from an annual rate of 2.9% to 2.0%, as consumer spending is forecast to have slowed sharply from the last quarter.
Despite the expected slowdown, the data is unlikely to make much impact on Fed policymakers given the expected boost over the coming months from the Trump administration tax cuts.
However, central banks are closely watching growth figures for signs of a global slowdown. The U.S. data will arrive after the UK registered its slowest growth in five years earlier on Friday, while the French economy also slowed more than expected to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2016.
Markets are largely expecting the Federal Reserve to stand pat on policy when it meets next week. The lack of changes would follow similar decisions by both the Bank of Japan earlier on Friday and the European Central Bank on Thursday.
In other data to be released stateside on Friday, the University of Michigan will publish its revision of consumer sentiment for April at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT). A slight uptick to 98.0 from the initial reading of 97.8 is the consensus forecast.
While waiting for the economic data, the dollar extended gains against major rivals and, on track for a weekly rise of around 1.7%, was celebrating its best week since November 2016.
On the geopolitical front, American traders will rise on Friday to the news of a historic peace agreement between North and South Korea. In a joint declaration, both leaders confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and declared that “there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun”.
Elsewhere, European stocks headed for a fifth straight week of gains as well-received earnings from Spanish banks and a recovery in tech shares buoyed sentiment.
Earlier, Asian stocks closed higher as investors celebrated a rebound in tech stocks while markets in Seoul were underpinned by optimism as leaders of North and South Korea held their first summit in over a decade.
Meanwhile, oil was trading lower on Friday as investors waited for the weekly installment of drilling activity from Baker Hughes on Friday at 1:00PM ET (17:00GMT). The report will provide investors with fresh insight into U.S. oil production and demand after data last week showed the number of U.S. oil rigs rose for the third straight week, driving worries that rising U.S. output could potentially derail OPEC's effort to end a supply glut