By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open lower Friday, continuing the recent selloff with investors' confidence hit by a combination of pandemic, economic and political worries.
At 07:20 AM ET (1120 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 23 points, or 0.7%, lower, the Dow Futures contract fell 223 points, or 0.8%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 41 points, or 0.4%.
Stocks are poised to end the fourth consecutive week in the red, thus likely snapping a five-month win streak. September has seen the S&P 500 drop nearly 7% so far. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite has fared even worse, giving back more than 10%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off more than 5%.
Investors pulled a massive $25.8 billion out of U.S. equity funds in the week to Wednesday, the third biggest outflow ever from the asset class, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)'s weekly fund flow report showed on Friday.
The prospect of further U.S. stimulus remains a key focus, after a plethora of Federal Reserve speakers, including Chairman Jerome Powell, highlighted the need for more aid to keep the recovery going.
This received a boost Thursday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressing willingness to resume talks, while the House Democrats started work on a new stimulus proposal that would total around $2.4 trillion.
The only problem is this proposal is roughly in line with the Democrats’ last offer, which was rejected by the Trump administration. Little has changed to suggest that this new submission will receive a more favorable welcome.
The key data release Friday will be the August durable goods number, at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT). This will show how U.S. factories are contributing to any economic rebound, with expectations pointing to a 1.4% gain, a big comedown from the massive 11.4% jump the previous month.
In corporate news, the tech sector is likely to be in focus once more, following news that a Senate panel is set to vote next week on whether to subpoena Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) CEOs over the industry’s liability protections.
Oil prices traded lower, with persistent concerns over demand growth likely to result in a losing week for the oil complex.
U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% lower at $39.83 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract was down 0.8% at $41.59. Brent is heading for a drop of over 2% this week, while U.S. crude is on track for a decline of around 1.5%.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.8% to $1,861.25/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% lower at 1.1636.