US pre-open: Futures in the red as Q4 bank earnings roll in

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Friday as market participants prepped for the beginning of earnings seasons with figures from a number of the nation's biggest banks.

As of 1220 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.24%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.37% and 0.53% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 216.96 points higher on Thursday after the Labor Department's CPI reading showed prices declined 0.1% over November.

Bank earnings will be in focus on Friday, with JPMorgan posting fourth-quarter earnings per share that came in a whole $0.50 ahead of expectations on revenues of $35.57bn. However, shares headed south after chief executive Jamie Dimon warned of coming headwinds.

Elsewhere, Bank of America's quarterly performance also topped expectations as rising interest rates helped to offset declines in its investment banking unit and Wells Fargo reported a fourth-quarter profit of $2.86bn and earnings per share of $0.67, beating Wall Street expectations.

Still to come, Citigroup, Delta Air Lines, BlackRock, and UnitedHealth were all slated to report earnings on Friday.

On the macro front, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's January consumer sentiment index will be published at 1500 GMT.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com