Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a flat to higher open on Friday as markets moved past the prior day’s risk events.
The blue-chip Dow futures edged forward 19 points, or 0.09%, at 6:58AM ET (10:58GMT), the S&P 500 futures advanced 2 points, or 0.08%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched up 1 point, or 0.01%.
Ahead of the U.S. open, the Nasdaq is the only one of the three major indices that has so far pocketed weekly gains of around 0.25%, while the Dow and S&P are down around 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, from last week.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to achieve a “strong and stable” government backfired as the Conservative Party lost its majority in the results of the general elections announced on Friday.
With 649 of 650 seats declared, the Conservatives had won 318 seats. Though the biggest single winner, they failed to reach the 326-mark they would need to command a parliamentary majority. Labour had won 261 seats.
With no clear winner emerging from Thursday's election, a wounded May signaled she would fight on, despite calls from the opposing Labour Party to step down.
But the impact appeared to be limited to the British pound, which in turned helped the FTSE 100 lead European markets higher on Friday. Exporters in the U.K. benchmark benefit from a weaker sterling when profits in other currencies are brought home.
With no major economic reports scheduled for release stateside, New York traders appeared relieved that the week’s most talked about risk events passed with no major surprises.
Markets seemed relieved that former FBI director James Comey’s testimony on Thursday failed to produce a “smoking gun” that could derail the political situation in the United States.
The European Central Bank (ECB) left policy unchanged on Thursday, in line with market expectations, though the euro was under pressure as ECB president Mario Draghi admitted that the euro area monetary authority had yet to discuss tapering plans.
With the ECB decision behind them, market participants will look ahead to a widely expected rate hike from the Federal Reserve (Fed) next week.
According to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool, markets had priced in a 90% chance that the Fed will tighten policy on June 14, increasing interest rates by 25 basis points.
Still, markets remained skeptical that the American central bank would make another move before the year’s end with odds at only around 34%.
Oil edged higher on Friday, but was still on track for weekly losses of around 4% as market players continued to worry over the fact that increasing production from both the U.S. and Nigeria could derail OPEC’s efforts to curb the global supply glut.
In that light, investors awaited the latest data from Baker Hughes on U.S. drilling, out later on Friday
The energy services provider said last week that U.S. drillers had added rigs for the 20th week in a row, the longest such streak on record, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead.
The U.S. rig count rose by 11 to 733, extending a year-long drilling recovery to the highest level since April 2015.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.28% to $45.77 by 7:00AM ET (11:00GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.31% to $48.01.