(Corrects paragraph 12 to say the Dow is on track for its biggest two-week jump since late 2022 and not for its biggest weekly gain since October 2022)
By Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta
(Reuters) -Wall Street's main stock indexes were set to open lower on Friday, with investors staying cautious ahead of economic data, while planemaker Boeing (NYSE:BA) dropped after issuing a quarterly profit warning.
At 8:42 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 105 points, or 0.23%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 10.75 points, or 0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 37 points, or 0.17%.
In premarket trading, Boeing lost 1.6% after warning that it expects a fourth-quarter loss of about $4 billion. The company is expected to report quarterly results on Tuesday.
NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) dropped 1.6% after reporting a decline in its fourth-quarter profit, hurt by weakness in its renewables segment.
Later in the day, markets will assess a preliminary private survey on manufacturing and services activity for January and the University of Michigan's final estimate on consumer sentiment.
Tariffs are high on investors' minds after President Donald Trump referred to the policies multiple times at separate events this week but did little to lay out entire details of the surcharges he plans to impose on trade partners of the United States.
The president has said tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China and the European Union could be announced on Feb. 1, but analysts say major plans could be announced on April 1 - the date by when federal agencies are expected to complete reviews of a range of trade issues.
Investors have negatively reacted to reports about potential tariffs, on worries that they could spark a global trade war, add to inflation pressures and slow the pace of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The central bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged next week at its first policy meeting of the year.
However, Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird, said "our view has been from the beginning that the concern about Trump inflation was overstated."
"There could be a slight upward pull on inflation from certain tariffs and maybe from immigration policies leading to higher wages, but there's also a downward pull from deregulation and more pro energy policies."
Investors were also taking a pause after the benchmark S&P 500 closed Thursday's session at a record high for the second time in over a month after Trump called for taxes, oil prices and interest rates to be lowered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
On a weekly basis, Wall Street's main indexes are set for their second straight week of advances, with the blue-chip Dow on track for its biggest two-week jump since late 2022, aided by Trump's artificial intelligence investment plans, signs of cooling inflation and robust earnings from big banks in the previous week.
Among others, Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) dropped 4.4% after forecasting first-quarter profit below analysts' estimates.
American Express (NYSE:AXP) reported a 12% jump in fourth-quarter profit. Its shares, however, fell 0.6%.
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) was up 0.9% on higher-than-expected fourth-quarter subscriber additions.
The following week will see quarterly reports from megacaps such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta (NASDAQ:META), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies such as JD (NASDAQ:JD).Com rose 3.1%, Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) added 2.7% and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) climbed 1.1% after Trump suggested in an interview that tariffs against China could be avoided.