Wall Street Poised To Open Lower

The Labor Department’s report on producer prices in the month of December might get investor attention on Friday.

Initial trends from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower.

In the Asian trading session, the dollar traded higher. Gold was below $5,200 an ounce. Oil prices fell nearly 2 percent.

As of 7.35 am ET, the Dow futures were declining 186.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were sliding 23.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were down 116.00 points.

The U.S. major averages finished broadly down on Thursday. The Dow ended the day up 55.96 points or 0.1 percent at 49,071.56, while the S&P 500 closed down just 9.02 points or 0.1 percent at 6,969.01.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day more firmly negative, down 172.33 points or 0.7 percent at 23,685.12.

On the economic front, the PPI-Final Demand for December will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 0.2 percent, while it was up 0.2 percent in the prior month.

The Chicago PMI for January will be released at 9.45 am ET. The consensus is 43.8, while it was up 43.5 in December.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be published at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 775, while the U.S. rig count was 544.

The Agriculture Department’s Farm Prices for December is scheduled at 3.00 pm ET. In the prior month, the prices were up 3.8 percent.

St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem will speak on the U.S. economy and monetary policy and participates in moderated discussion before the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research 32nd Annual Business Forecast Luncheon at 1.30 pm ET.

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will speak on “Monetary Policy and Supervision and Regulation” before the SW Graduate School of Banking at SMU Cox: 161st Assembly for Bank Directors at 5.00 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended mostly lower on Friday. China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.96 percent to 4,117.95.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 2.08 percent to 27,387.11.

Japan’s Nikkei finished marginally lower at 53,322.85. The broader Topix index settled 0.59 percent higher at 3,566.32.

Australian markets fell notably as material stocks succumbed to profit taking after recent strong gains. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.65 percent to 8,869.10, extending losses for a third straight session. The broader All Ordinaries index ended down 0.78 percent at 9,164.80.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index rose 0.56 percent to 13,423.18, recouping losses from the previous two sessions.

U.S. stocks ended mostly lower overnight after Microsoft reported slower growth in its cloud business.

The Dow recovered from an early sell-off to close 0.1 percent higher while the S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.7 percent.

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