US pre-open: Futures lower as bank earnings begin to roll in

Wall Street futures had stocks opening lower ahead of the bell on Friday as several major US banks were slated to report their latest quarterly earnings throughout the course of the day.

As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.40%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.29% and 0.03% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 68.95 points lower on Thursday after president-elect Joe Biden unveiled his $1.9trn Covid-19 relief package.

Biden's proposal, referred to as the American Rescue Plan, involves upping additional federal unemployment payments to $400 a week and stretching them out until the end of September, direct payments of $1,400 to Americans and extending federal moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures through September.

The proposal also calls for $350.0bn in aid to state and local governments, $70.0bn for Covid-19 testing and vaccination programs and increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.0 an hour.

SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said: "It seems the market's view is that it is all well and good promising such stimulus – now Biden needs to get it through a precariously balanced, and distracted, Senate. If the incoming President can achieve that, then investors might be in the mood to celebrate.

"For now, however, they were too busy crunching the latest batch of covid-19-impacted numbers."

On the macro front, December's producer price index, retail sales figures for last month and the January New York Empire State manufacturing index will all be published at 1330 GMT, while industrial production numbers for December will follow at 1415 GMT and both the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment reading for January and November business inventories will be released at 1500 GMT.

In the corporate space, banking heavyweight JP Morgan blew past analysts' forecasts for the fourth quarter as the lender released $2.9bn of reserves on the back of the improved outlook.

Fourth-quarter earnings per share at the largest US lender and investment bank by market capitalisation surged 47.4% to reach $3.79 (consensus: $2.62), while the year-on-year rate of topline growth meanwhile clocked in at 3.4% to reach $28.67bn (consensus: $28.67bn).

Wells Fargo and Citigroup will also post earnings on Friday.