US pre-open: Futures point to losses ahead of retail sales data
US futures had stocks opening lower on Friday as market participants awaited the release of April's retail sales data.
As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.93%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.86% and 0.79% lower, respectively.
The Dow closed 377.37 points higher on Thursday after a solid performance from bank shares and climbing oil prices helped offset another dire jobless report.
Friday's main focus will be the Census Bureau's monthly retail sales figures at 1330 BST.
Economists expect April retail sales to have plunged 12.3%, which would be the steepest decline since reporting began in 1992, with extreme weakness predicted in apparel sales, as well as gasoline and automotive sales. On the other hand, spending at food and beverage retailers were expected to have risen, as were online sales.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "US markets saw a big turnaround yesterday finishing higher for the first day this week, as we look to the latest retail sales numbers for April.
"In March we saw a record decline of 8.7%, despite the lockdown only coming towards the end of the month. Today's April numbers are expected to be even worse than that, with expectations of a 12% decline. This seems a touch on the optimistic side given that the US economy was shut down for the entire month."
Also in focus was news that the Commerce Department had amended an export rule to "strategically target Huawei's acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain US software and technology". However, Commerce also issued a 90-day extension to a temporary reprieve of its ban on the use of equipment from Huawei.
On the macro front, following the retail sales report will be industrial production figures at 1415 BST and a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index at 1500 BST.
No major corporate earnings were scheduled for release on Friday.