US open: Dow Jones unchanged at the bell
Wall Street trading began on a slightly mixed note on Friday as oil prices continued to recover from the week's historic sell-off.
As of 1535 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was mostly flat - up just 0.04% at 23,524.75, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both came out the gate 0.20% firmer at 2,803.31 and 8,511.71, respectively.
The Dow opened just 9.49 points higher on Friday, following on from a mixed performance in a volatile session a day earlier after a report from the Financial Times, which cited documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization, said Gilead Sciences' remdesivir was not effective in treating coronavirus cases as previously reported.
Gilead later claimed the study was "terminated early due to low enrolment", meaning the results were "inconclusive".
However, giving sentiment a slight boost on Friday was day three of rising oil prices, with West Texas Intermediate crude up 3.21% at $17.03 per barrel ahead of an expected cut in US production.
On the macro front, US orders for goods made to last more than three years crashed lower last month amid huge drops in those for civilian aircraft and those for automobiles and parts.
According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, orders for durable goods shrank by an outsized 14.4% month-on-month in March to reach an annualised pace of $213.18bn. That compared to a 11.1% decline anticipated by economists.
Elsewhere, consumer sentiment fell for a third consecutive month as Americans weighed up the pandemic and a potential economic re-opening of the States.
Consumer sentiment fell to 71.8 in April from 89.1 in March, according to the University of Michigan, slightly ahead of a print of 67 predicted on the Street.
In the corporate space, American Express said profits had sunk 76% year-on-year after putting aside $2.6bn to protect it from losses stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, while AT&T said chairman Randall Stephenson would be standing down from the group on 1 July.