US pre-open: Futures in the green ahead of retail sales report

Wall Street futures had stocks opening higher ahead of the bell on Friday as the first week of second-quarter earnings season draws to a close.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.13%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were 0.17% and 0.21% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 109.79 points higher on Friday as investors digested earnings from a number of the US' biggest banks.

With a break from the earnings onslaught, Friday's main focus will be last month's retail sales data, with economists expecting to overall retail and foodservice sales to decline 0.4% month-on-month.

CMC Markets' Michael Hewson said: "Today’s main event is the latest US retail sales numbers for June, which are likely to see an improvement from the declines in May, but also speak to a reluctance of US consumers to spend all of their stimulus payments at once.

"While the US is doing well on the vaccine rollout plans and the reopening of the economy, with theme and holiday parks also reopening, the rise in cases that we are now seeing, appears to be feeding into an overriding feeling of caution around consumer spending patterns which appears to be tempering retail sales."

On the macro front, June retail sales figures will be published at 1330 BST, while a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index will be released at 1500 BST, as will business inventories data for May.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release.