US pre-open: Stocks seen touch lower as investors eye Citigroup

US futures pointed to a marginally weaker open on Wall Street, with oil prices in the red ahead of this weekend’s meeting of oil producers in Doha, and as investors awaited the latest earnings from banking heavyweight Citigroup.

At 1100 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.2% weaker.

At the same time, oil prices extended losses amid reports the Iranian oil minister will not attend this Sunday’s summit in Qatar. West Texas Intermediate was down 1.2% to $41.00 a barrel while Brent crude was 0.9% lower at $43.43.

On Thursday, 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 would have only a limited impact on supplies.

Earlier, stocks in Asia reacted in a pretty muted fashion to data showing China’s economy grew 6.7% on the year in the first quarter compared with 6.8% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Although this marked the slowest quarterly growth in seven years, it was in line with both economists’ expectations and the country’s own targets. The government’s growth range is 6.5% to 7%.

For 2015 as a whole, growth came in at 6.9%.

Meanwhile, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed industrial output in the world’s second-largest economy rose 6.8% in March from the year before and compared with 5.4% growth in January to February. Economists had been expecting a 5.9% increase.

On the month, industrial production was up 0.6% from February compared with 0.4% growth the month before.

Retail sales increased 10.5% in March from a year earlier compared with 10.2% growth in January to February, just a touch above economists’ expectations of 10.4%.

On the corporate front, Citigroup was due to release its first-quarter results ahead of the opening bell.

“Citigroup provides the third and final US bank to release earnings this week. JPMorgan and BoA have shown that the recent pessimism, evident in the lead up to this earnings season, could be unjustified, with both seeing their share price rally heavily upon releasing Q1 figures,” said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG.

“However, it is worth realising that low expectations are the driver of this bounce, with conditions proving tough for US banks amid squeezed profit margins, slowed investment banking activity due to volatile markets, and energy loans writedowns.”

Goldman Sachs was likely to be in focus following a report the company was kicking off its biggest cost-cutting push in years as it looks to combat a slump in trading and deal-making.

Bloomberg cited two people with knowledge of the matter as saying the bank recently began dismissing more support staff and is increasingly rejecting bankers’ spending on airfare, hotels and entertainment unless it directly serves clients.

Still to come on the macroeconomic calendar, Empire manufacturing is at 1330 BST while industrial production is at 1415 BST and University of Michigan consumer sentiment is at 1500 BST.