US pre-open: Futures point to positive open ahead of GDP

Wall Street stocks looked set to open higher on Friday, with market participants digesting some overnight earnings and looking ahead to the release of second-quarter gross domestic product figures.

As of 1220 BST, Dow futures were up 0.32%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were up 0.34% and 0.46%, respectively.

Investors were beginning to think the Federal Reserve may not be as dovish with its monetary policy as initially expected after the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged on Thursday.

The ECB's move dented optimism around rate cuts in the US, with traders seemingly taking Mario Draghi's decision to mean that the Fed may not be quite as aggressive when it comes to easing measures itself when it meets next week.

In terms of earnings, Amazon reported mixed results from its second quarter overnight, while earnings from Google parent Alphabet were ahead of estimates and Tesla shares dropped after reporting a wider-than-expected loss.

McDonald's and Twitter will bring the earnings-packed week to a close.

On the data front, US GDP figures were due for release at 1330 BST.

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "It's clear that traders will be paying close attention to the GDP release today and that means we could see some big moves in the dollar, especially if we see a decent miss or beat given how jittery traders are at the moment. The dollar has recovered strongly recently as traders have pared back expectations but that could change quickly, traders are all too keen for more cuts."

The broadest measure of the US economy is expected to come in at 1.8%.