US pre-open: Futures mixed ahead of shortened trading session

Wall Street futures were mixed ahead of the bell on Friday as traders returned for a shortened session following the Thanksgiving Day break.

As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were up 0.21% and 0.15%, respectively, while Nasdaq-100 futures were down 0.12%

The Dow closed 95.96 points higher on Wednesday as market participants waded through a sea of data points.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting were still in focus prior to the open, with the notes revealing that the central bank had begun to witness progress in its battle against high inflation and that it would soon look to decelerate the pace of rate hikes. The minutes said a "substantial majority of participants" had judged that a slowing in the pace of increases "would likely soon be appropriate".

Mirroring their American counterparts, the European Central Bank's latest set of minutes, released on Thursday, revealed that "a few" officials now favoured a smaller rate increase than the 75 basis point hike that the bank delivered in October.

Markets will stop trading at 1800 GMT in order to allow investors to take advantage of Black Friday deals.

"Investors might not realise it, but we've just had an important week in terms of the potential direction of markets going forward. Signs that the Federal Reserve might slow down the pace of interest rate hikes is the first step towards the pivot in strategy desired by so many investors," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.

"Black Friday deals are now in full swing, and retailers will be hoping they can shift some of their excess stock. While this should clear some space in their warehouses, it won't necessarily be good for their profit margins as consumers are under significant financial pressure and the only way to get them to keep spending is to slash prices to the bone."

No major corporate earnings or data points were scheduled for release on Friday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com