Stock Futures Mostly Flat as Wall Street Tries to Recover From Thursday’s Drop

stock exchange chart illustration
Illustration

Stock futures were mostly little changed early Friday morning following a volatile session that snapped a four-day winning streak for one of the major averages, CNBC reports.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dipped just 1 point while S&P 500 futures were also little changed. Nasdaq-100 futures traded in positive territory.

During regular trading, the Dow slid 135 points, or 0.5%, to post its first daily decline in five days. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively. Those losses came amid a mixed batch of U.S. economic data.

Initial weekly jobless claims rose by 1.3 million in the week ending July 11. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 1.25 million.

Meanwhile, retail sales jumped 7.5% last month, topping a Dow Jones forecast of a 5.2% gain. June’s sharp gains come after sales surged by a record 17.7% in May.

Gregory Faranello, head of U.S. rates trading at AmeriVet Securities, said the market took the better-than-forecast retail sales data with “a grain of salt.”

“We’re rolling into this period of coronavirus cases increasing and we’ve had some shutdowns,” Faranello said. “So, there’s definitely a sense of nervousness in the market.”

More than 3.5 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Some states, including California, Florida and Texas, have had to roll back reopening measures to curb a recent spike in cases.

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