Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a higher open on Friday as upbeat price data out in China lifted investor sentiment and market participants reacted to JP Morgan’s earnings report ahead of results from Wells Fargo and Citi and waited for economic data, as well as an appearance from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen later in the session.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 92 points, or 0.51%, by 7:09AM ET (11:0954GMT), the S&P 500 futures rose 10 points, or 0.47%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 21 points, or 0.44%.
Just as China’s trade data dampened investor sentiment a day earlier, investors found some relief Friday from economic reports on prices that suggested that the world’s second largest economy could see some renewed hopes for demand prospects.
China reported that producer prices (PPI) rose 0.1% year-on-year, compared to a decline of 0.3% expected. That was the first positive growth since February 2012.
Additionally, the consumer price index (CPI) for September showed a gain of 0.7% month-on-month, well above the 0.3% pace seen and led by food prices, and a 1.9% increase year-on-year, faster than the 1.6% rise expected.
In the U.S., JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) helped market sentiment as the world’s largest bank and Dow Jones component kicked off the third-quarter bank reporting season with a beat on both the top and bottom line. Shares were up nearly 2% in pre-market trade.
That was ahead of earnings reports from both Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) due at 8:00AM ET (12:00GMT).
Outside of bank numbers, the focus on Thursday will undoubtedly be on Fed chair Janet Yellen as market participants look for clues on her current stance for the future timing of the next rate hike.
Yellen is scheduled to deliver a speech on “Macroeconomic Research After the Crisis” at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Annual Research Conference on Friday at 1:30PM ET (17:30GMT), according to the Federal Reserve’s website (the Boston Fed’s agenda for the conference lists Yellen as giving a keynote address at 12:30PM ET).
The speech comes after the minutes from the September 20-21 Fed meeting revealed that several voting members of the policy committee judged a rate hike would be warranted "relatively soon" if the U.S. economy continued to strengthen.
Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren, who was one of three policy makers that called for a rate hike back in September, will also speak at the conference on Friday.
Analysts widely expect the Fed to avoid making a move in November as the meeting comes less than a week ahead of the U.S. presidential elections.
Fed fund futures currently price in the chance of a rate hike in November at just 9.3%, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool. Most bets pointed to a December move with the odds at 69.9%.
On the economic front, U.S. retail sales data will also be in the spotlight Friday, as investors attempt to gauge if the world's largest economy is strong enough to withstand an increase in borrowing costs before the end of the year.
The Commerce Department will publish data on September retail sales at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) Friday. The consensus forecast is that the report will show retail sales rose 0.6% last month, after falling 0.3% in August. Core sales are forecast to inch up 0.4%, after declining 0.1% a month earlier.
Additionally, at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT), market participants will also eye the preliminary release of the Michigan consumer sentiment for the month of October. Consensus forecasts no change to September’s reading of 82.7.
Also on the Friday’s economic calendar, investors will digest producer prices for September and business inventories from August.
Meanwhile, oil prices continued to rally on Friday on the back of U.S. inventory released a day earlier.
Experts explained that the massive build in crude inventories was outweighed by the larger than expected decline in gasoline and distillate stocks.
U.S. crude futures traded up 1.19% to $51.04 by 7:11AM ET (11:11GMT), while Brent oil gained 0.86% to $52.48.