Oil futures try for a fifth straight gain on Friday but are presently seeing lackluster moves as investors weighed a strong economic report from China against evidence of cases of COVID rising in parts of the world, threatening a fitful recovery from the demand-sapping pandemic.
Tech giants across nearly every sector are expected to report solid earnings gains in both the coming quarter and the rest of 2021, as the pandemic accelerated nearly everything, from e-commerce to virtual work to cloud computing.
Dow and S&P 500 index futures contracts were edging slightly higher Friday morning, as investors awaited a flurry of corporate earnings results to end the first week of the quarterly reporting season.
European stocks are climbing after China follows strong U.S. growth with blowout data of its own. The Stoxx 600 and German DAX are headed for fresh record closes.