Higher Open Likely For US Markets, Oil High

Higher open likely for the U.S markets Friday after the key stock index futures looked up in the morning. Market participants are awaiting the upcoming trends in the earnings season starting Friday.

At 04:15 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 78 points, indicating a positive open of more than 70 points. The S&P and Nasdaq futures were also nominally high.

Leading U.S. banks J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo will report their latest figures before the bell on Friday. Import price data for March and consumer sentiment figures will be out in the day.

Oil price up

Oil prices surged Friday after involuntary production cuts of Venezuela, Libya and Iran tightened the market, as an extension of the OPEC strategy of supply tightening to shore up prices.

Brent crude oil futures soared to $71.39 per barrel at 0832 GMT, up 56 cents from the last close. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped 61 cents to $64.19 per barrel that was a weekly rise of 1.7 percent.

“Geopolitically infused rallies could shoot prices toward or even past the $80 per barrel mark for intermittent periods this summer,” Canada’s RBC Capital Markets said in a note.

Asian stock markets mixed

Meanwhile, mixed trends prevailed in Asia shares Friday, with the Chinese markets slipping despite a better official trade data that surpassed expectations. There is trepidation over the likely trends in US earnings session and also over global growth. China’s trade data for March showed exports and overall trade surplus were higher than expected.

Mainland Chinese shares traded lower during the day, with the Shanghai Composite below the flatline and the Shenzhen component down 0.26 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.22 percent.

Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.73 percent. Japan’s Topix index dipped slightly while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.41 percent. The ASX 200 in Australia added 0.85 percent.

Gold price moves up

Gold prices inched up Friday after Thursday’s decline. The slight uptick followed the weakening of the dollar and Asian equities.

Spot gold jumped 0.1 percent at to $1,293.30 per ounce as of 0804 GMT from Thursday’s one-week low. The U.S. gold futures gained 0.2 percent to $1,295.40 an ounce.

“Market is holding tight ahead of the corporate earnings to know whether the economic conditions slowed in the first quarter and affected the corporate structure,” commented Phillip Futures analyst Benjamin Lu.

Stronger U.S earnings may force gold to step back a little as that will expand investors’ appetite for riskier assets and diminish bullion’s appeal.