US pre-open: Shares seen flat as investors eye more earnings; eBay under pressure
US futures pointed to a muted open on Wall Street on Friday ahead of earnings from the likes of General Electric and Honeywell.
At 1135 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq futures were down 0.1%, while S&P futures were flat.
Meanwhile, the dollar was down 0.2% versus the euro at 0.8583 as traders bet that the European Central Bank will start tapering asset purchases next year, despite dovish comments from Mario Draghi on Thursday.
JPMorgan said in an equity strategy note that global earnings growth remains intact, with the most notable improvement in Europe and to some extent emerging markets, while US growth remains solid.
“In our recent report we argued for upside risk to both S&P 500 price and earnings if central bank expectations continued to converge and USD further weakened. So far this year, Europe/Japan versus US interest rate differentials have narrowed on average by around 35bps and USD has declined by more than 7% on a trade-weighted basis.
“Our analysis suggests for every 2% decrease in USD, S&P 500 EPS has historically been revised up by around 1%. Looking ahead, we expect another upbeat reporting season with 2Q17 EPS coming in at circa $32.50 (consensus $31.54) on above-trend revenue growth and better than expected margins.”
On the corporate front, earnings were due before the bell from General Electric, Honeywell, Schlumberger and Colgate-Palmolive.
Elsewhere, Microsoft looked set to rally at the open after the software maker’s better-than-expected earnings late on Thursday, while Visa was higher in pre-market trade after its earnings also topped estimates.
Going the other way, eBay fell in pre-market trade after its second-quarter sales and earnings came in as expected.
There are no major US data releases due.