Wall Street Might Open Lower

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Producer Price Index or PPI for July is the highlight on Friday.

Activision Blizzard, CBS Corp., News Corp., Symantec, Uber and Yelp are among the companies releasing their quarterly results after the close of today's trading.

Asian shares finished mixed, while European shares are trading lower.

As of 7.50 am ET, the Dow futures are declining 141 points, the S&P 500 futures are down 17.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures are losing 60.75 points.

U.S. major stocks finished higher on Thursday. The Dow surged up 371.12 points or 1.4 percent to 26,378.19, the Nasdaq soared 176.33 points or 2.2 percent to 8,039.16 and the S&P 500 spiked 54.11 points or 1.9 percent to 2,938.09.

On the economic front, the Labor Department's Producer Price Index or PPI for July will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.2 percent, while it climbed 0.1 percent in the prior month.

Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be revealed at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North American rig count was 1079 and U.S. rig count was 942.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Friday. Chinese shares fell. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index ended down 19.80 points or 0.71 percent at 2,774.75.

Consumer prices in China rose an annual 2.8 percent in July, that exceeded expectations of 2.7 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended down 0.69 percent at 25,939.30.

Japanese shares advanced. Japan's GDP grew 0.4 percent sequentially in the second quarter of 2019.

On an annualized basis, GDP gained 1.8 percent. The Nikkei average rose 91.47 points or 0.44 percent to 20,684.82 while the broader Topix index ended up 0.35 percent at 1,503.84.

Australian shares finished 21.10 points or 0.32 percent higher at 6,663.40.

European shares are trading lower. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is down 51.45 points or 0.95 percent, the German DAX is falling 137.13 points or 1.16 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is declining 6.40 points or 0.09 percent and the Swiss Market Index is up 11.38 points or 0.12 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is down 1.11 percent.

Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX