US pre-open: Dow on track to end volatile week on a high

Wall Street futures were mixed ahead of the bell on Friday, with the Dow Jones hoping to end what has been a volatile week for trading on somewhat of a high note.

As of 1225 GMT, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were up 0.42% and 0.17%, respectively, while Nasdaq-100 futures had the index opening 0.50% lower.

The Dow closed 199.42 points higher on Thursday as cyclical trades picked up steam in afternoon trading.

Stock futures were buoyed by news that the Federal Reserve would allow banks to resume buybacks and raise dividends from the end of June, giving investors more clarity despite the central bank actually pushing out the lifting of its pandemic era restrictions from the end of the first quarter to the end of the first half.

Ahead of the bell, eyes were also on the 10-year treasury note yet again, with the yield on the benchmark note increasing to roughly 1.67% in the early hours after another weak seven-year auction in the US.

Comments from the White House drew an amount of investor attention too, with Joe Biden holding his first press conference as President yesterday, in which he said he would run again in 2024, at age 82, and committed to the US administering 200.0m vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.

On the macro front, February's core PCE price index will be posted at 1230 GMT, as will February goods trade balance numbers and an advance reading of last month's wholesale inventories report.

After that, the University of Michigan's final consumer sentiment index for March was slated for release at 1400 GMT and the US budget plan for 2022 will be published at 1900 GMT.

In the corporate space, bank stocks were performing well prior to the open thanks to the Fed update, while reopening plays like United Airlines and Carnival were both up more than 2% before the day's session had even officially begun.