Wall Street Sees Red

(RTTNews) - On a day of lean economic data announcements, the market might remain relatively subdued on Friday. Early trends on the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower.

As of 7.50 am ET, the Dow futures were losing 138.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were down 20.75 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were sliding 69.75 points.

The U.S. major averages ended Thursday narrowly mixed. The Dow crept up 28.77 points or 0.1 percent to 43,325.80, the Nasdaq slipped 10.77 points or 0.1 percent to 20,020.37 and the S&P 500 edged down 2.45 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,037.59.

On the economic front, the International Trade in Goods (Advance) for November will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a deficit of $101.0 billion, while in October the gap was $99.1 billion.

The Retail Inventories (Advance) for November will be issued at 8.30 am ET. In the prior month, the inventories were up 0.1 percent. The Wholesale Inventories (Advance) for November is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.1 percent, while it was up 0.2 percent in October.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week is expected at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was down 125 bcf. EIA's Petroleum Status Report for the week is expected at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the Crude oil inventories were down 0.9 million barrels and the gasoline inventories were up 2.3 million barrels.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be released at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 755 and the U.S. rig count was 589.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Friday. China's Shanghai Composite index finished marginally higher at 3,400.14. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended flat with a negative bias at 20,090.46.

Japanese markets rallied. The Nikkei average jumped 1.80 percent to 40,281.16 while the broader Topix index settled 1.26 percent higher at 2,801.68.

Australian markets ended higher. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose half a percent to 8,261.80 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed up 0.57 percent at 8,520.10.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index jumped 1 percent to 13,205.10.