Wall Street opens on the front foot

The main indices on Wall Street have started in positive territory on Friday as traders aim to end a volatile week on a higher note.

In the early minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.63% at 34.298 while the S&P 500 climbed 0.51% to 4,180 and the Nasdaq rose 0.43% to 13,594.

One of the early movers on Friday was tractor maker Deere & Co (NYSE:DE), which fell 0.4% to US$353.7 despite strong second-quarter earnings reported before the bell.

7:45am: Wall Street set to open higher

Futures are pointing to a green open for the main indices on Wall Street on Friday, suggesting a positive ending to a rollercoaster week for markets.

The market will keep an eye out for US manufacturing and service sector PMIs for signs of recovery in the US economy and its potential impact on the dollar.

“This week saw assets prices swing wildly with Bitcoin and other cryptos coming under significant pressure in mid-week before dip buyers caused prices to bounce back equally impressively. The stock markets also followed this script, as the major US indices turned flat or almost flat, after a wobble in the earlier parts of the week,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at ThinkMarkets.

“Concerns over inflation and policy tightening have repeatedly been dismissed by the market, although bond yields maintain their recent advance – even if some commodities have started to fall back down with China taking steps to try and temper prices. If yields were to accelerate to the upside, this would bode ill for the overstretched growth companies, especially in the technology sector. So far, investors have been happy to buy every single dip. But inflation concerns could come back to haunt investors at some point down the line, as it has the potential to threaten the economic recovery.”

Four things to watch for on Friday:

• Companies reporting earnings at the end of the week include clothing and footwear retailers VF Corp (NYSE:VFC) and Buckle Inc (NYSE:BKE) as well as shoe seller Foot Locker Inc (NYSE:FL)
• Shares in tractor maker Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) will be in focus after the company reported higher second quarter earnings before the opening bell
• Crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) could also draw attention amid reports it is considering acquiring digital asset manager Osprey
• On the macro front, investors will be keeping an eye on the latest US flash PMI readings for May

Story by ProactiveInvestors