Wall Street Set To Open Lower

(RTTNews) - Initial cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower. Asian shares finished lower, while European shares are trading in negative territory. As of 7.10 am ET, the Dow futures were sliding 73.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 21.75 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were down 120.50 points.

The U.S. major U.S. stock markets faded to negative territory for the third straight session at the close of the session.

For the day, the Dow plummeted 313.26 points or 0.89 percent to finish at 34,715.39, while the NASDAQ plunged 186.23 points or 1.30 percent to close at 14,154.02 and the S&P 500 sank 50.03 points or 1.10 percent to end at 4,482.73.

On the economic front, the Conference Board's Leading Indicators for December will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for 0.7 percent, while it was up 1.1 percent in the prior month. The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be released at 1.00 pm ET. The North America Rig Count was 792, and the U.S. Rig Count was 601. The Canada Rig Count was 191.

Asian stocks fell on Friday. Chinese shares ended lower, dragged down by technology and healthcare stocks.

China's Shanghai Composite index fell 32.50 points, or 0.91 percent, to 3,522.57 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index finished marginally higher at 24,965.55.

Japanese stocks closed lower. The Nikkei average declined 250.67 points, or 0.90 percent, to 27,522.26, while the broader Topix index closed 0.59 percent lower at 1,927.18.

Australian markets wrapped up their worst week in more than a year, with miners leading losses. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 fell 166.60 points, or 2.27 percent, to 7,175.80 and ended down about 3 percent for the week, marking its biggest weekly loss since late October 2020.

The broader All Ordinaries index slipped 178.80 points, or 2.33 percent, to settle at 7,490.10.

European shares are trading lower. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is declining 109.39 points or 1.52 percent. The German DAX is losing 276.54 points or 1.74 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is sliding 70.68 points or 0.94 percent.

The Swiss Market Index is falling 72.22 points or 0.95 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is down 1.54 percent.