US stocks look for steadier open after Thursday's falls ahead of some key data

7.50am: Small gains expected at end of week

US stocks are expected to open modestly higher on Friday, steadying after big falls on Thursday as traders await a batch of US economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrials Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are called to add a handful of points in early trading, with the Dow and Nasdaq both having notched up triple-digit losses in the previous session.

Traders are still digesting the GameStop Congressional hearing while awaiting the latest Markit flash US PMI readings for both the manufacturing and services sectors.

Later on Friday, US climate change envoy John Kerry is scheduled to formally get back to the Paris agreement after the Trump administration withdrew from it.

Looking at commodities, the oil price fell below US$60 per barrel as wells are recommencing activity in Texas after cold-weather disruption, not helped by Iraq boosting its crude oil exports despite pledging to restrain production.

Conversely, Bitcoin hit the US$52,000 mark after Tesla CEO Elon Musk called it a “less dumb” version of cash while defending the electric car maker’s US$1.5bn investment in the cryptocurrency.

Five things to watch on Friday:

The UK’s top court has ruled that a group of former drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. were entitled to a minimum wage and other benefits while working for the company, dealing a setback to Uber and other gig-economy firms in world-wide battles over their employment model.

HSBC Holdings PLC does not need to hand over banking documents requested by Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou as part of her effort to resist a US extradition order, a judge in London’s High Court said Friday.

International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a potential sale of its IBM Watson Health business, according to the Wall Street Journal which cited people familiar with the matter, as the technology giant’s new chief executive moves to streamline the company and become more competitive in cloud computing.

Robinhood Markets Inc. chief executive officer, Vlad Tenev offered an apology for the company’s decision to temporarily curb trading in some stocks, including GameStop Corp. , on January 28 amid extraordinary volatility. His apology came after House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters interrupted the Robinhood CEO during his opening remarks to US lawmakers.

A single shot of the coronavirus (COVID-29) vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE is 85% effective in preventing symptomatic disease 15 to 28 days after being administered, an Israeli study found, a development that could help guide policy makers setting vaccine priorities world-wide.

Story by ProactiveInvestors