Wall Street Futures Signal Negative Open

Investors on Friday might keenly wait for the Personal Income and Spending report and a couple of Fed speeches.

In Asian trade session, the dollar was steady and gold touched a new record high. Oil prices dipped slightly.

Asian shares finished mostly down, while European shares are trading mostly down.

Initial trends on the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower.

As of 8.15 am ET, the Dow futures were down 42.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 8.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were tumbling 51.50 points.

The U.S. major averages closed lower on Thursday. The Nasdaq slid 94.98 points or 0.5 percent to 17,804.03, the Dow fell 155.09 points or 0.4 percent to 42,299.70 and the S&P 500 dipped 18.89 points or 0.3 percent to 5,693.31.

On the economic front, the Personal Income and Outlays for February will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus for Personal Income is an increase of 0.4 percent, while it was up 0.9 percent in the prior month.

The Personal Consumption Expenditure is projected to increase 0.5 percent, while it was down 0.2 percent in the previous month.

The Consumer Sentiment for March is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 57.9, while it was up 57.9 in February.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be published at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America Rig Count was 773, while the U.S. rig count was 593. The Canada Rig Count was 180.

Fed Governor Michael Barr will participate in Banking Policy discussion before the 2025 Banking Institute event hosted by the University of North Carolina Law School at 12.15 pm ET.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will moderate U.S. Housing Finance Policy panel discussion before the Third Annual Georgia Tech-Atlanta Fed Household Finance Conference at 3.45 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended mostly lower on Friday. China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.67 percent to 3,351.31 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.65 percent to 23,426.60.

Japanese markets ended. The Nikkei average tumbled 1.80 percent to 37,120.33 while the broader Topix index settled 2.07 percent lower at 2,757.25.

Australian markets ended slightly higher. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 edged up by 0.16 percent to 7,982 while the broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.12 percent higher at 8,195.50.

European shares are trading lower. CAC 40 of France is losing 42.64 points or 0.53 percent. DAX of Germany is down 113.85 points or 0.50 percent. FTSE 100 of England is adding 17.04 points or 0.20 percent. The Swiss Market Index is progressing 7.71 points or 0.06 percent.

Euro Stoxx 50 that provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is down 0.39 percent.

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