US pre-open: Bargain hunting begins

US futures were performing an end-of-week U-turn after markets had plunged throughout the previous days, with investors snapping up some bargains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set to open up at least 128 points, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were expected to start the session 17 and 34 points higher respectively.

At 1330 GMT, there is a plethora of retail data due including advance retail sales and the import price index, while at 1500 GMT, the University of Michigan confidence survey results for February will be released.

The retail sales report may provide some clarity on the health of the US economy as personal consumption is a big chunk of US GDP.

"Wages and job creation in 2016 have followed a positive trajectory while declining oil prices, which have helped energy savings, should translate to higher consumer spending," said FXTM analyst Lukman Otunuga. "While these factors may point to retail sales rising in January, ongoing global woes have opened the US to downside risks and this may have a negative impact on consumption. If retail sales fail to meet expectations then concerns over the state of the US economy may be amplified consequently exposing the USD to steeper losses."

Another red Friday in Asia

Elsewhere, Asian markets sank on Friday, as investors continued their week-long run for cover and offloaded their riskier assets.

Investors were still turning to safe havens in Japan, in particular gold, government bonds, and the ever-popular yen. The currency had enjoyed a surge in recent days as its popularity increased, which is bad news for large firms in the island nation as the price of exports has jumped.

"There's obviously a series of worries out there, perhaps the biggest of which is that - aside from China - central banks are pushing around the end of a piece of string and then enter negative interest rates," Salt Funds Management managing director Matthew Goodson told New Zealand's National Business Review on the state of the region.

"What we're seeing in this current sell off is a loss of faith in risk markets and central banks, and their ability to keep bailing markets out. You've driven risk-free rates even lower, but the risk premium investors demand has gone up.”

European equities racked up healthy gains on Friday, rebounding from heavy losses in the previous session as investors cheered results from the likes of Commerzbank and Rolls-Royce.

Oil price began to rally again, with West Texas Intermediate up 4.35% to $27.35 a barrel and Brent rising 4.36% to $31.37.

The dollar was down 0.35% against the pound, but had risen 0.51% against the euro and 0.34% against the yen. Spot gold had dipped 0.81% to $1,236.66.

In company news, JP Morgan Chase chief executive achieved his aim to stem negative sentiment for the company. He pruchased 500,000 shares for $26m on Thursday, sending the share price up over 3% in pre-market trade.