Stocks May See Early Weakness Amid Lower Oil Prices - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Following the pullback seen during yesterday's lackluster session, stocks may see some further downside in early trading on Friday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a lower open for the markets, with the Dow futures down by 63 points.

The downward momentum on Wall Street is partly due to a decrease by the price of crude oil, which is pulling back further off yesterday's intraday highs.

Crude for March delivery is currently sliding $0.85 to $29.92 a barrel amid lingering concerns about a global supply glut.

The more actively traded April futures are falling $0.82 to $32.11 a barrel after ending the previous session down $0.05 at $32.93 a barrel.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department recently released a report showing consumer prices came in flat in the month of January.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index was unchanged in January after edging down by 0.1 percent in December. Economists had expected prices to dip by another 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the report said core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, rose by 0.3 percent in January following an upwardly revised 0.2 percent increase in December.

Core prices had been expected to inch up by 0.1 percent, matching the uptick originally reported for the previous month.

The increase in core prices was the biggest since August of 2011 and reflected notably higher prices for shelter and medical care.

Compared to the same month a year ago, the headline consumer price index was up by 1.4 percent in January, while core prices were up by 2.2 percent.

Among individual stocks, shares of TrueCar (TRUE) are moving sharply lower in pre-market trading after the car-shopping website operator reported weaker than expected fourth quarter results and provided disappointing guidance.

Heavy equipment maker Deere & Co. (DE) may also see early weakness after reporting first quarter revenues that missed analyst estimates and warning of another challenging year in 2016.

On the other hand, shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) are likely to move to the upside after the semiconductor equipment maker reported first quarter results that beat estimates and provided upbeat guidance.

After moving sharply higher over the three preceding sessions, stocks gave back some ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday. Some traders stayed on the sidelines following recent volatility, however, leading to relatively choppy trading.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but still ended the day in the red. The Dow dipped 40.40 points or 0.3 percent to 16,413.43, the Nasdaq slumped 46.53 points or 1 percent to 4,487.54 and the S&P 500 fell 8.99 points or 0.5 percent to 1,917.83.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped by 0.4 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the downside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index has fallen by 0.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both down by 0.7 percent.

In commodities trading, gold futures are currently trading at $1,223.50, down $2.80 from the previous session's close of $1,226.30 an ounce. On Thursday, the futures gained $14.90. On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 113.09 yen compared to the 113.24 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Thursday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1077 compared to yesterday's $1.1107.