US pre-open: Stocks seen flat as investors look to key bank earnings

US futures pointed to a broadly flat open on Wall Street following a strong performance in the previous session, as investors looked to earnings from heavyweights such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

At 1125 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all 0.1% lower.

At the same time, oil prices were still in the red but off lows as the International Energy Agency said the global oil glut was set to ease by the end of this year. It also said that any potential agreement to freeze output at the Doha meeting this weekend would have only a limited impact on supplies.

West Texas Intermediate was down 0.2% to $41.66 a barrel and Brent crude was 0.4% lower at $44.02.

On the corporate front, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and BlackRock are slated to release earnings ahead of the opening bell.

On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase & Co released stronger-than-expected first quarter results that helped to support the sector overall. Earnings per share and revenue came in at $1.35 and $24.1bn compared to expectations of $1.26 and $23bn, respectively.

“Better-than-expected earnings from JP Morgan Chase boosted financial stocks and investors will be hoping the positive momentum can be maintained as the earnings season continues,” said Andy McLevey at Interactive Investor.

On the data front, investors will eye the release of US initial jobless claims and the consumer price index at 1330 BST.

Societe Generale said the first increase in gasoline prices since June 2015 is likely to have boosted the March headline CPI by 0.2%, with a decent possibility that the increase could get rounded up to a 0.3% advance.

In currencies, the dollar was 0.6% firmer against the pound and 0.1% stronger versus the euro, but down 0.1% against the yen.