The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a modestly higher opening on Friday, although stocks may show a lack of direction following the rally seen in the previous session.
Traders may reluctant to make significant moves as they digest recent strength in the markets, which lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs on Thursday.
Next week's Federal Reserve meeting may also keep some traders on the sidelines amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front.
The Fed is scheduled to announce it latest monetary policy decision next Wednesday and is widely expected to raise interest rates by another quarter point.
The accompanying statement is likely to attract considerable attention along with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference as traders attempt to gauge the outlook for further rate hikes.
Stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the upward move seen over the past few sessions. With the gains on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.
The major averages pulled back off their highs going into the close but held on to significant gains. The Dow jumped 251.22 points or 1 percent to 26,656.98, the Nasdaq surged up 78.19 points or 1 percent to 8,028.23 and the S&P 500 advanced 22.80 points or 0.8 percent to 2,930.75.
The rally on Wall Street came as traders continued to shrug off concerns about the escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sought to downplay the trade dispute in comments to CNBC-TV18, calling it a "trade skirmish" rather than a trade war.
Upbeat economic data also generated some positive sentiment, with a report from the Labor Department showing initial jobless claims unexpectedly dipped to their lowest level in nearly fifty years in the week ended September 15th.
The Labor Department said jobless claims edged down to 201,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 204,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 210,000.
With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 197,000 in November of 1969.
A separate report from the Conference Board showed a continued increase by its index of leading economic indicators in the month of August.
The Conference Board said its leading economic index rose by 0.4 percent in August after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.7 percent in July.
"The leading indicators are consistent with a solid growth scenario in the second half of 2018 and at this stage of a maturing business cycle in the U.S., it doesn't get much better than this," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at the Conference Board.
He added, "The strengths among the LEI's components were very widespread, further supporting an outlook of above 3.0 percent growth for the remainder of 2018."
Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing existing home sales were unexpectedly flat in August, with sales growth in the Northeast and Midwest offset by downturns in the South and West.
Tobacco stocks moved substantially higher over the course of the trading session, driving the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index up by 5 percent. With the jump, the index reached a record closing high.
The rally by tobacco stocks came after FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC the agency may fast-track the review process for e-cigarettes that include features that make the products less likely to be used by kids.
Significant strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. The index bounced off its lowest closing level in over four months.
Biotechnology stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, resulting in a 2.1 percent advance by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index.
Steel, chemical, banking, and semiconductor stocks also moved notably higher, reflecting broad based buying interest on Wall Street.
Commodity, Currency Markets
Crude oil futures are climbing $0.53 to $70.85 a barrel after falling $0.45 to $70.32 a barrel on Thursday. Meanwhile, after rising $3 to $1,211.30 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are slipping $2.90 to $1,208.40 an ounce.
On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 112.63 yen compared to the 112.49 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Thursday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1756 compared to yesterday's $1.1777.
Asia
Asian stocks rose broadly on Friday to extend a recovery as investors veered around to the view that the U.S.-China trade dispute will be less harmful to global growth than first feared.
Chinese stocks posted strong gains as investors continued to bet that Beijing will increase economic stimulus to boost the economy in the face of the trade war.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index soared 68.24 points or 2.5 percent to 2,797.48, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged up 475.91 points or 1.7 percent to 27,953.58.
Japanese shares rose for the sixth straight day, with a weaker yen and upbeat manufacturing data helping underpin investor sentiment.
The manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand in September, and at an accelerated pace, the latest survey from Nikkei revealed with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.9, up from 52.5 in August.
Another report showed that overall consumer prices in Japan rose an annual 1.3 percent in August, exceeding expectations for 1.1 percent and up from 0.9 percent in July.
The Nikkei 225 Index climbed 195.00 points or 0.8 percent to 23,869.93, a fresh eight-month high, as investors turned their focus to the second round of trade talks between Japan and the U.S. scheduled for September 24th. The broader Topix Index closed 0.9 percent higher at 1,804.02.
Banks and insurers were among the top gainers after the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose above 3 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial rose 1.1 percent, T&D Holdings climbed 3.3 percent and Dai-ichi Life Holdings jumped 3.5 percent.
Shipping as well as other commodity-related stocks also attracted buying amid easing concerns over the impact from the U.S.-China trade war.
Australian markets advanced, led by banks and miners. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 25.10 points or 0.4 percent to 6,194.60, while the broader All Ordinaries Index ended up 28.50 points or 0.5 percent at 6,305.40.
Miners BHP Billion, Fortescue Metals Group and Rio Tinto climbed 2-4 percent after copper prices jumped more than 1 percent on the London Metal Exchange.
Banks ANZ, Commonwealth and Westpac eked out marginal gains, mirroring gains among their U.S. peers overnight. Retailer Woolworths Group gained 0.9 percent and energy major Woodside Petroleum added half a percent.
Propertylink Group soared 9.5 percent after the Australian arm of real estate developer ESR Group offered to acquire the company for A$693.2 million.
In economic news, S&P Global Ratings raised Australia's sovereign rating outlook and said it expects the federal budget balance will return to a surplus by the early 2020s. The credit rating was affirmed at 'AAA' and the outlook was upwardly revised to 'stable' from 'negative'.
Europe
European stocks have risen on Friday to extend recent gains as investors veered around to the view that the U.S.-China trade row will be less harmful to global growth than first feared.
Sentiment was also underpinned by expectations that Beijing will increase economic stimulus to boost the economy in the face of the trade war.
While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index has jumped by 1.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are up by 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.
The British pound has retreated after a warning from European Union leaders that Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to withdraw from the European Union "will not work."
Banks and miners led the surge, while British engineering company Smiths Group has tumbled after disruptions at its medical unit hit its annual profit.
Just Eat and Delivery Hero have also moved lower on a Bloomberg report that Uber is in early discussions to buy food delivery upstart Deliveroo for several billion dollars.
In economic releases, the eurozone private sector grew at the second-weakest rate since late-2016 on subdued manufacturing activity growth in September, survey data from IHS Markit showed.
The composite output index fell to 54.2 in September from 54.5 in August. The score was forecast to remain unchanged at 54.5.
French GDP advanced 0.2 percent sequentially in the second quarter, the same rate as seen in the first quarter and in line with the second estimate published on August 2nd, detailed figures from Insee revealed.
U.K. public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, rose by 2.4 billion pounds from last year to 6.8 billion pounds in August, official data showed. This was the largest August borrowing in two years.
U.S. Economic Reports
Following the slew of U.S. economic data released on Thursday, there are no major U.S. economic reports due to be released today.
Stocks In Focus
Shares of Steelcase (SCS) are moving sharply higher in pre-market trading after the office furniture maker reported better than expected fiscal second quarter results and provided upbeat guidance for the current quarter.
Fast food giant McDonald's (MCD) may also move to the upside after raising its quarterly dividend by 15 percent to $1.16 per share from $1.01 share.
On the other hand, shares of Micron Technology (MU) are likely to come under pressure after the chipmaker reported fiscal fourth quarter results that exceeded expectations but warned about the impact of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Organic and specialty foods distributor United Natural Foods (UNFI) is also seeing significant pre-market weakness after reporting weaker than expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings.
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