Bank CEOs meet with Trump to discuss Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Bloomberg
(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Walt Disney rises after surprise quarterly profit
* PayPal extends rise as brokerages upbeat after investor
day
* Energy stocks slide as oil prices drop on demand fears
* Futures down: Dow 0.09%, S&P 0.16%, Nasdaq 0.11%
(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Feb 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
open slightly lower on Friday as energy stocks slipped while
investors booked profits after a rally on bets of fiscal
stimulus and a vaccine-fueled bounce back in the economy.
Chevron Corp CVX.N , Occidental Petroleum Corp OXY.N and
Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N dipped between 0.5% and 1.1% in
premarket trading as oil prices retreated on demand fears. O/R
U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with a bipartisan group
of mayors and governors on Friday as he continues to push for
approval of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.
All three major indexes hit record highs this week and were
on course for their second straight weekly rise, as a sharp drop
in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations also buoyed hopes of
life eventually returning to normal.
U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday on account of
George Washington's Birthday.
"The markets have gone up tremendously," said Kim Forrest,
chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in
Pittsburgh.
"It's going to be a long weekend and it's going to make
things more volatile and there is just less interest in buying
more."
A Reuters poll showed the U.S. economy is expected to reach
pre-COVID-19 levels within a year as the proposed $1.9 trillion
fiscal package helps boost economic activity, but it's likely to
take over a year for unemployment to fall to early 2020 levels.
With the markets near historic highs, many analysts have
cautioned of a near-term pullback, with new coronavirus variants
and bumps in vaccine distribution posing as threats.
At 8:17 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 28 points,
or 0.09% and S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 6.25 points, or
0.16%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 14.75 points, or
0.11%.
Largely upbeat earnings update have also supported market
sentiment. About 82% of 355 S&P 500 firms have topped analysts'
estimated for fourth-quarter profit, well above the average beat
rate of 76% over the past four quarters, per Refinitiv data.
Walt Disney Co DIS.N rose 1.4% after the company swung to
a surprise quarterly profit as "The Mandalorian" and "Soul"
lifted its fast-growing streaming business, outweighing pandemic
worries about its hobbled theme park operations. PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O rose 3% as several brokerages
raised price targets on the stock a day after the payments
company's investor day call.
Economic data at 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) is expected to show
that a reading on the University of Michigan's consumer
sentiment index edged up to 80.8 in February from 79 in January.