Wall Street Targets To Open Moderately Higher

(RTTNews) - Reaction to a Commerce Department report on personal income and spending and other economic announcements might be the focus on Friday.

Early trends on the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open moderately up. As of 8.15 am ET, the Dow futures were up 31.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 3.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 13.75 points.

The U.S. major averages finished higher on Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 23.11 points or 0.4 percent to a new record closing high of 5,745.37, the Dow advanced 260.36 points or 0.6 percent to 42,175.11 and the Nasdaq climbed 108.09 points or 0.6 percent to 18,190.29.

On the economic front, the International Trade in Goods (Advance) for August will be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a deficit of $100 billion, while the prior revised deficit was $102.8 billion.

Personal Income and Outlays for August is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.4 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in July.

The Retail Inventories (Advance) for August is expected at 8.30 am ET. In the prior month, the inventories were up 0.8 percent.

The Wholesale Inventories (Advance) for August will be revealed at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.2 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in the prior month.

The Consumer Sentiment for September will be issued at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 69.0, while it was up 69 in August.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week is scheduled at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 799, while the U.S. rig count was 588.

The Farm prices for August is expected at 3.00 pm ET. In the prior month, the prices were up 2.7 percent.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman will participate in conversation before the Alabama Bankers Association Bank CEO Meeting at 1.15 pm ET.

Asia markets closed higher. China's Shanghai Composite Index surged 2.8 percent to finish trading at 3,086.08. The Hang Seng Index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange surged 3.6 percent to finish trading at 20,632.30.

The Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 Index rallied 2.3 percent to close at 39,829.56. Australia's S&P/ASX200 Index closed trading at 8,212.20, gaining 0.1 percent.