US pre-open: Futures higher ahead of Friday's PCE reading

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Friday as market participants looked ahead to some key inflation data later in the session. As of 1210 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.12%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.70% and 0.96% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed 375.12 points lower on Thursday following a gross domestic product report that pointed to a sharp slowdown in growth and persistent inflation.

Friday's main focus will be last month's personal consumption expenditures price index, due out at 1330 BST, with the report expected to show inflation running at 2.6% on an annualised basis, or 2.7% when stripping out volatile food and energy prices.

Scope Markets' Joshua Mahony said: "The US economy looks set to dominate once again today, with the core PCE price index inflation gauge set for release in the wake of yesterday's concerning decline for first quarter GDP. With the Fed's favoured inflation figure standing at 2.8% for February, the doves will look towards this as the best equipped metric to move back towards target and encourage the Fed to cut. Nonetheless, recent inflation pressures seen over the past two months do highlight a growing fear that we will see price growth remain well above 2% for some time yet. The expectations of a September rate cut from the Federal Reserve appear to have dwindled, with the stubborn inflation pressures having taken us from expecting seven rate cuts this year, to only one."

Elsewhere on the macro front, March personal income and spending figures will also be published at 1330 BST, while the University of Michigan's April consumer sentiment index will follow at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, Google parent company Alphabet traded higher in pre-market on the back of better-than-expected Q1 earnings, its first-ever dividend, and a $70.0bn buyback, while Microsoft shares headed north after the software giant report Q3 numbers that came in ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Chevron and Exxon Mobil will report before the opening bell.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com