Wall Street Aims To Open Moderately Up

(RTTNews) - Oil price fluctuations and concerns over energy-driven inflation might influence investor sentiments on Friday. Investors are closely watching President Trump's new tariff impositions on dozens of countries, which will be effective today.

Oil prices slipped from recent highs above $100 a barrel. Brent crude futures fell nearly 4 percent below $97 a barrel.

Gold edged up slightly in the Asian trading session. The U.S. dollar remained weak.

Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open moderately up.

As of 8.00 am ET, the Dow futures were adding 192.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were up 14.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were gaining 20.75 points.

The U.S. major averages ended Thursday firmly negative. The Nasdaq plunged 553.21 points or 2.2 percent to 25,137.69, the S&P 500 tumbled 90.66 points or 1.2 percent to 7,408.30 and the Dow slumped 506.93 points or 1 percent to 51,711.65.

On the economic front, the PMI Composite Flash for July will be released at 9.45 am ET. The consensus for composite Index is 54.2, while it was up 51.9 in the prior month. Manufacturing index is projected to be 54.3, while it was up 53.9 in the prior month.

The Commerce Department and the Housing and Urban Development department's New Home Sales for June will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 613K, while it was up 580K in the prior month.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week is scheduled at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 786 and the U.S. rig count was 588.

Asian stocks declined on Friday. China's Shanghai Composite index slumped 1.61 percent to 3,814.20. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.98 percent to 24,963.23.

Japanese markets tumbled. The Nikkei average tumbled 2.73 percent to 64,611.15. The broader Topix index settled 1.05 percent lower at 4,011.31.

Australian markets ended notably lower. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.75 percent to 8,772.30 while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 0.85 percent to 8,941.50.