JPMorgan posts record earnings, lifting stocks
JPMorgan Chase and Co. posted record third quarter earnings. Shares of JPMorgan rose 1.8 percent in premarket trading, lifting US stock futures along the way.
This July 2012 file photo shows the JPMorgan Chase office in London. The country's biggest bank by assets reported a record quarterly profit Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. The earnings report helped lift US stock futures.
Timur Emek/AP/File
New York
U.S. stock index futures were higher on Friday, indicating the S&P 500 may crimp its worst weekly decline, after robust earnings from JPMorgan and ahead of data on consumer confidence and inflation.
* JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 1.8 percent to $42.85 in premarket trading after reporting higher third-quarter profits as the largest U.S. bank made more home mortgage loans.
* Also on tap for Friday were earnings from Wells Fargo & Co . Earnings from both banks will be monitored for insight on the health of the financial sector, and the economy as a whole. Both have been forecast to report an increase of roughly 20 percent in their earnings per share, due in part to a home loan refinancing boom.
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* Investors will also look to economic data in the form of the September producer price index at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) and the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers preliminary consumer sentiment index for October at 9:55 a.m. (1355 ET).
* Producer prices are expected to show a 0.7 percent rise compared with a 1.7 percent rise in August. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a consumer sentiment reading of 78.0 compared with 78.3 in the final September report.
* Investors will eye the PPI data for any signs of inflation while consumer sentiment will be monitored for indications recent labor market data helped boost views on the economy.
* S&P 500 futures rose 4.6 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 29 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 3.75 points.
* Advanced Micro Devices Inc dropped 8.1 percent to $2.94 in premarket trading after the chipmaker said its third-quarter revenue likely fell 10 percent from the previous quarter as a weak global economy and a growing preference for tablets slams the PC industry.
* European shares fell and looked set to end the week in negative territory but analysts said the market was not likely to witness a sharp sell-off.
* Asian stocks steadied, but were on course for a losing week as worries about weak corporate earnings and slowing global economic growth limit the appeal of riskier assets.