Wall Street Seen Opening On Subdued Note

(RTTNews) - Subdued futures point to a flat or slightly negative start for U.S. stocks on Friday. After a truncated session on Wednesday and a holiday on Thursday, trading will be on for a full session on Friday.

Activity is unlikely to be any significantly hectic as traders may continue to stay on the sidelines amid a lack of fresh data.

Investors will continue to assess recent economic data and weigh the prospects of another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

The Dow futures are down 0.2 percent at 48,930.00, while the S&P futures and the Nasdaq futures are lower by 0.06 percent at 6,978.00, and 0.01 percent at 25,876.75, respectively.

Stocks closed mostly higher on Wednesday after showing a lack of direction early on in the shortened trading session.

The major averages extended their winning streak to five days, with the Dow and the S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs. The Dow advanced 288.75 points or 0.6 percent to 48,731.16, the Nasdaq rose 51.46 points or 0.2 percent to 23,613.31 and the S&P 500 climbed 22.26 points or 0.3 percent to 6,932.05.

Overall trading activity was a bit subdued, as traders mostly stayed away from their desks ahead of the Christmas Day holiday on Thursday.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended December 20th.

The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 214,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 224,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 223,000.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks advanced in thin holiday trade on Friday after the S&P 500 ended higher for a fifth day in a shortened session on Wednesday ahead of the Christmas and Boxing holidays.

Trading volumes remained thin, with markets in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and much of Europe shut for holidays.

The major European markets are closed today for Boxing Day holiday.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down slightly at $58.34 a barrel.

Gold futures are gaining $31.20 or 0.69% at $4,534.00 an ounce, while Silver futures are up $2.485 or 3.47% at $74.170 an ounce.