Wall Street Likely To Open On Mixed Note

Sluggish futures and mixed economic data point to a mixed start for U.S. stocks on Friday. Concerns about the ongoing war in Ukraine and rising inflation are likely to weigh on sentiment and render the mood cautious.

With a long holiday weekend ahead, traders may largely prefer to stay on the sidelines.

On the economic front, data released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits increased to 185,000 in the week ended April 9th, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 167,000. Economists had expected initial jobless claims to edge up to 171,000 from the 166,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A report from the Commerce Department showed retail sales rose by 0.5% in March after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.8% in February.

Shares of Twitter Inc rose more than 6% in pre-market after billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to acquire the social networking platform with an offer price of $54.20 per share, a 38% premium to the stock’s closing price as on April 1.

Citigroup Inc said its first quarter net income of $4.3 billion decreased 46% from the prior-year period.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) announced first-quarter earnings of $3.83 billion, or $10.76 per share, compared with $6.71 billion, or $18.60 per share, in last year’s first quarter. Analysts on average had expected the company to earn $8.82 per share.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks moved sharply higher after initial struggle. The Dow jumped 344.23 points or 1% to 34,564.59, the Nasdaq surged 272.02 points or 2% to 13,643.59 and the S&P 500 shot up 49.14 points or 1.1% to 4,446.59.

Asian stocks moved higher on Thursday, as a retreat in U.S. Treasury yields helped push rate-sensitive tech stocks higher and China pledged measures to cushion the damage to the economy due to the stringent lockdown measures imposed in Shanghai and elsewhere.

After a sluggish start, European stocks are moving higher with investors reacting to the European Central Bank’s policy announcement.

The European Central Bank today kept its monetary policy unchanged but adopted a more hawkish tone, paving the way for a start to policy normalization in the summer.

The ECB said that it expects to conclude its net asset purchases in the third quarter, earlier than previously stated.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May are down $1.33 or 1.28% at $102.92 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $2.50 or 0.1% at $1,982.20 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.225 or 0.85% at $25.805 an ounce.

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