Stock futures were little changed on Friday morning, as investors looked ahead to a wholesale inflation reading. JPMorgan Chase shares rose as the bank kicked of the third-quarter reporting season.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 15 points to 42,761.
Futures for the S&P 500 slid 5.25 points, or 0.1% to 5,823.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite Index shed 61.75 points, or 0.3%, to 20,368.
The major averages are heading into the final day of the week with modest gains. The S&P 500 is up 0.5% week to date, while the Dow is toting a 0.2% gain. The NASDAQ is the outperformer of the three, up 0.8% in the period.
JPMorgan Chase shares gained after the bank topped profit and revenue expectations for the third quarter. The bank reported $4.37 earnings per share for the quarter, well ahead of the consensus $4.01 estimate from analysts polled by LSEG. JPMorgan was up about 2% in premarket trading.
Wells Fargo’s results however fell short. The bank reported $20.37 billion in revenue for the third quarter, just below the $20.42 billion estimate from analysts polled by LSEG. Wells Fargo shares were higher nonetheless, up 3%.
Fresh data issued on Thursday raised investors’ fears that inflation wasn’t cooling off quickly enough. September’s consumer price index rose 0.2% on a monthly basis and 2.4% from a year earlier. Those results topped the 0.1% monthly advance and 2.3% year-over-year gain economists polled by Dow Jones anticipated.
Indeed, another catalyst awaits on Friday morning: the producer price index, a measure of wholesale prices. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the PPI index to have risen 0.1% in September on a monthly basis. Excluding food and energy costs, they forecast a 0.2% advance.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gathered 0.6% Friday, while in Hong Kong, markets were closed for holiday.
Oil prices dipped 53 cents to $75.32 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices jumped $17.60 to $2,656.90
