US pre-open: Futures in the red as Q3 earnings season gets underway

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Friday as market participants digested quarterly earnings reports from some of the biggest names in US banking.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.01%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.09% and 0.29% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 57.88 points lower on Thursday as last month's consumer price index led to fears that inflation hasn't quite cooled off as initially hoped.

Friday's primary focus will be on September's producer price index, slated for release at 1330 BST, with economists expecting to see headline PPI growth slow from 0.2% to 0.1% on a monthly basis.

Elsewhere on the macro front, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's October consumer sentiment index will follow at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, JPMorgan Chase said quarterly profits had slipped on the back of increased costs but still came in ahead of estimates, while Wells Fargo said its investment banking unit had helped offset the impact of reduced interest rates in Q3.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com