Stock Futures Slump, Oil Pushes Higher

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U.S. stock-index futures meandered to the downside on Friday to cap a fairly quiet trading week. Meanwhile, oil prices climbed.

Today's Markets

As of 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 41 points to 15411, S&P 500 futures dipped 4 points to 1690 and Nasdaq 100 futures slumped 2.3 points to 2125.

The markets snapped their longest losing streak since June on Thursday. Trading was expected to be quiet on the day, with little in the way of economic and corporate news on tap.

"We are rather arbitrarily banging around in a range – we are down today despite some encouraging data out of China that is dominating the headlines even if it is seemingly being ignored action wise," said Michael Block, chief strategist at Rhino Trading Partners. Block called the recent action "yoyo" style.

On the economic front, there is a report on wholesale inventories due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Elsewhere, BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) was said to be warming to the idea of going private, according to a report by Reuters, citing several people familiar with the matter.

Oil prices rose 44 cents, or 0.43%, to $103.82 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline gained 0.51% to $2.872 a gallon. Gold fell $1.20, or 0.08%, to $1,309 a troy ounce.

Foreign Markets

The Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.02% to 2817, the English FTSE 100 gained 0.59% to 6567 and the German DAX climbed 0.13% to 8329.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 ticked up 0.07% to 13615 and the Chinese Hang Seng advanced 0.7% to 21808.