Wall Street Could Open Marginally Higher

(RTTNews) - Reports on new residential construction and consumer sentiment and inflation expectations might be the focus on Friday. Investor sentiments might be influenced by brewing Middle East tensions, Russia-Ukraine war like situation.

Netflix earnings is scheduled after the close of today's trading.

Early cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggests that Wall Street might open slightly up.

Asian shares finished mostly up, while European shares are trading broadly higher.

In the Asian trading session, the dollar index pulled back slightly, while gold edged up slightly.

As of 8.10 am ET, the Dow futures were gaining 50.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were progressing 4.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were climbing 11.25 points.

The U.S. major averages finished higher on Thursday. The Nasdaq advanced 153.78 points or 0.7 percent to 20,884.27, the S&P 500 climbed 33.66 points or 0.5 percent to 6,297.36 and the Dow rose 229.71 points or 0.5 percent to 44,484.49.

On the economic front, the Housing Starts and Permits for June will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus for Starts is 1.300 million, while it was up 1.256 million in the prior month. Permits are expected to be 1.380 million, while it was up 1.393 million in May.

The Consumer Sentiment for July will be released at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 61.4, while it was up 60.7 in the prior month.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be published at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 699, while it was up 537.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Friday. China's Shanghai Composite index rose half a percent to 3,534.48. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rallied 1.33 percent to 24,825.66 buoyed by a positive outlook from Taiwan Semiconductor and strong earnings from Netflix.

Japanese stocks ended slightly lower. The Nikkei average dipped 0.21 percent to 39,819.11 while the broader Topix index settled 0.19 percent lower at 2,834.48.

Australian stocks hit a record high. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.37 percent to 8,757.20 while the broader All Ordinaries index ended up 1.30 percent at 9,006.80.

European shares are trading broadly higher. CAC 40 of France is gaining 4.41 points or 0.06 percent. DAX of Germany is down 30.15 points or 0.12 percent. FTSE 100 of England is progressing 13.65 points or 0.15 percent. The Swiss Market Index is adding 20.65 points or 0.17 percent.

Euro Stoxx 50 that provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is down 0.14 percent.