Futures Climb After Chase Earnings Top Expectations

FOX Business: Capitalism Lives Here

U.S. stock-index futures pushed higher on Friday as traders responded to better-than-expected earnings from J.P. Morgan Chase and mulled data on wholesale inflation.

Today's Markets

As of 8:35 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 25 points to 13290, S&P 500 futures gained 3 points to 1432 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 4.5 points to 2718.

It has been a choppy week for Wall Street. The Nasdaq has closed in the red for five days in a row in its longest losing streak since July, sinking 3.2% over the period. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 barely snapped a four-day losing streak on Thursday.

Trading desks were beginning to focus on third-quarter corporate earnings.

J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) kicked off earnings season for the banks with a beat.

The biggest U.S. bank by assets revealed third-quarter profits of $1.40 a share, compared to $1.02 a share in the same period in 2011. Sales came in at $25.9 billion excluding the impact of debt value adjustments.  The figures topped estimates of earnings of $1.24 a share on revenues of $24.53 billion. Shares climbed more than 1% in pre-market trading.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) posted third-quarter earnings of 88 cents a share, topping Wall Street’s estimates by a penny. The bank’s sales came in at $21.2 billion, missing estimates of $21.47 billion. Shares slumped more than 2% in the pre-market.

Also in corporate news, chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) warned after the close of trading on Thursday that its sales are likely to have fallen 10% in the third quarter from the one before.

Traders will also get reports on inflation at the wholesale level consumer and consumer sentiment.

The Commerce Department said producer prices rose 1.1% in September from August, a bigger jump than the 0.7% expected, as energy prices swelled. Excluding the food and energy components, prices were flat, compared to expectations of a 0.2% gain. Meanwhile, the Reuters/University of Michigan gauge of consumer sentiment is expected to have ticked slightly lower in October from the month before.

Oil prices were little changed on the day as gasoline prices slumped. The benchmark crude contract traded in New York rose 25 cents, or 0.28%, to $92.32 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline sold off by 1.5% to $2.91 a gallon.

In metals, gold edged lower by $1, or 0.06%, to $1,770 a troy ounce.

Foreign Markets

The Euro Stoxx 50 dipped 0.05% to 2486, the English FTSE 100 slipped 0.18% to 5819 and the German DAX slumped 0.16% to 7270.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 drifted lower by 0.15% to 8534 and the Chinese Hang Seng rose 0.65% to 21136.