Investing.com – Wall Street futures were trading mixed before the bell on Friday as investors weighed worse-than-expected earnings published after the close on Thursday and waited for some more major company reports.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 6 points, or 0.03%, by 10:47AM GMT, or 6:47AM ET, the S&P 500 futures edged forward 3 points, or 0.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 4 points, or 0.09%.
Investors were keeping an eye on the psychological level of 18,000 points for the blue-chip index.
The Dow settled back below at 17,982.52 points at Thursday’s close after having breached that level for the first time since July 2015 on Monday.
In earnings, Google’s parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) sunk more than 5% in the pre-market as results reported after Thursday’s close were hit by higher traffic costs and a stronger dollar.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was down close to 5% after both revenue and profit missed consensus.
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) also fell 4% as sales growth fell short of expectations.
For Friday’s session, blue chips McDonald’s, Caterpillar and General Electric were all set to report quarterly earnings.
As attention began to shift to next week’s Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy decision, the dollar edged up to one-week highs.
Though the Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged, markets were waiting to see if the U.S. central bank would take on a more hawkish tone.
Specifically, the U.S. Dollar Index, that gauges the greenback’s value against a basket of six other currencies, rose 0.23% to 94.84, at 10:48AM GMT, or 6:48AM ET.
On the U.S. economic front, the calendar was light, though Markit will release its manufacturing PMI for April at 13:45GMT or 9:45AM ET.
Crude tried to defend what was on track to be not only its third consecutive week of gains, but also one of its biggest weekly rallies this year.
Brent was up around 8% since Monday while West Texas had continued to move higher throughout the week.
Meanwhile, investors waited for the U.S. rig count data from Baker Hughes which will be released later on Friday.
U.S. crude futures rose 0.21% to $43.27 by 10:49AM GMT, or 6:49AM ET, while Brent oil slipped 0.07% to $44.50.