Wall Street Might Bounce Back

(RTTNews) - The Import and Export prices report might be of importance on Friday. Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open positive.

Asian shares finished mostly down, while European shares are gaining mostly up.

Geopolitical developments are keenly followed by investors. U.S. President-elected Donald Trump's upcoming inauguration and his invites to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping are widely discussed.

In the Asian trading session, the dollar index held steady, while oil and gold recorded gains.

As of 7.45 am ET, the Dow futures were up 62.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 21.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 172.75 points.

The U.S. major averages fell to new lows at the close of trading on Thursday. The Dow slid 234.44 points or 0.5 percent to 43,914.12, the Nasdaq declined 132.05 points or 0.7 percent to 19,902.84 and the S&P 500 fell 32.94 points or 0.5 percent to 6,051.25.

On the economic front, the Import and Export Prices for November will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a decline of 0.3 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in the prior month.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week is scheduled at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 783 and the U.S. Rig count was 589.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Friday. China's Shanghai Composite index fell 2.01 percent to 3,391.88 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 2.09 percent to 19,971.24.

Japanese markets fell sharply. The Nikkei average fell 0.95 percent to 39,470.44. The broader Topix index settled 0.95 percent lower at 2,746.56.

Australian markets ended lower. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.41 percent to 8,296. The broader All Ordinaries index fell 0.43 percent to 8,550.30.

European shares are trading mostly higher. CAC 40 of France is progressing 11.44 points or 0.15 percent. DAX of Germany is adding 38.20 points or 0.19 percent. FTSE 100 of England is up 5.04 points or 0.06 percent. The Swiss Market Index is gaining 2.49 points or 0.02 percent.

Euro Stoxx 50 that provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is up 0.28 percent.