U.S. futures are edging higher Friday as the first week of earnings season comes to a close with markets trading close to record levels.
Futures for the S&P 500 added 0.2% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were effectively flat. Nasdaq futures rose 0.5%.
Oil prices rebounded around 1.5% after dropping sharply on Thursday.
A handful of bigger regional U.S. banks reported their earnings Friday following mixed reports from their larger
peers. Pittsburgh's PNC jumped 3.2% after it beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter targets, in part due to higher interest income and fees.
Buffalo's M&T Bank rose 1% after also beating analyst forecasts.
Transport company J.B. Hunt beat quarterly profit expectations, but tumbled close to 4% after a drop-off in fourth-quarter revenue.
Earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies is picking up pace. With most of the biggest banks and financial institutions having reported this week, Wall Street's attention will turn to the technology sector and artificial intelligence-related companies.
“As we dive into the heart of earnings season in the coming weeks, tech results will be scrutinized in far greater detail.,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary.
“Concerns around circular AI deals, leverage and delayed returns on investment remain front of mind for investors. These are compounded by rising electricity and metals costs, higher memory-chip prices, and the risk of supply disruptions,” she said.
In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX edged 0.3% lower, while the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.8%. Britain's FTSE 100 was unchanged.
Gains in Asia were led by Taiwan, where the benchmark rose nearly 2% after its government signed a trade deal with the U.S. China, which claims the self-governed island as its own territory, protested the agreement.
The agreement cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% in exchange for $250 billion in new investments in the U.S. tech industry.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 shed 0.3% to 53,936.17, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave up 0.3% to 26,844.96. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 4,101.91.
China is due to report its economic growth data for 2025 on Monday. Forecasts are for the economy to have expanded at about a 4.5% annual pace, slowing from earlier in the year.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.9% to a record 4,840.74. The benchmark has been trading at record highs for weeks, helped by a recovery in confidence in AI-related shares. Samsung Electronics gained 3.5%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 8,903.90. India's Sensex rose 0.2%.
Easing oil prices also helped to calm investors' jitters.
Early Friday, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude cost $59.95, up 87 cents from a day earlier. It sank 4.6% on Thursday after Trump said he had heard “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran had stopped amid widespread protests against the country’s leadership.
Brent crude, the international standard, added 93 cents to $64.69 per barrel. It dropped 4.1% on Thursday.
Financial markets took Trump's comments about Iran as a signal that tensions flaring above some of the world’s largest oil deposits could ease, which in turn could lower the possibility of disruptions to oil supplies.
