US stock futures signal higher open following prior day’s sell-off, investors await trade data

Stock futures slightly higher ahead of trade data

NEW YORK — Stock futures crept higher Friday as investors awaited trade data and weighed more retail earnings reports a day after stocks staged a sharp sell-off.

The gains in stock futures came as the dollar resumed its decline against other currencies.

Stronger-than-expected earnings from The Walt Disney Co. last Thursday were partly offset by reports from retailers J.C. Penney & Co. and Abercrombie & Fitch that showed an ongoing slump in sales.

On Friday, investors will also get data on how much demand for U.S. goods and services has picked up when the government releases its report on the U.S. trade deficit at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Economists expect the trade deficit to have widened in September, after unexpectedly dipping in August.

Markets are reversing course from Thursday’s performance, when the Dow Jones industrials dropped 93 points, breaking a six-day winning streak as oil prices tumbled on fresh signs of weak energy demand and a stronger dollar.

The dollar has had a strong pull over financial markets. The dollar’s steady decline since March, spurred by record-low interest rates, has encouraged investors to move their money out of the dollar and into higher-yielding assets like stocks and commodities. A weak dollar makes U.S. exports and dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for foreign buyers, which should help boost corporate profits down the line.

Foreign governments, however, have begun to express concern about the country’s weakening currency, for fear that their own economies could suffer as the falling dollar makes their currencies stronger and exports more expensive. Investors also fear that a continual steep decline in the dollar could lead to inflation.

Ahead of the market’s open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 12, or 0.1 percent, to 10,201. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 1.80, or 0.2 percent, to 1,089.10, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 3.25, or 0.2 percent, to 1,777.00.

The ICE Futures US dollar index, which measures the dollar against other currencies, fell 0.3 percent.

Gold prices hovered at $1,106 an ounce, while oil prices slipped 31 cents to $76.66 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In earnings news, teen clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. said its third-quarter profit fell 39 percent on an ongoing slump in sales. But results were better than analysts had expected. Its shares jumped $2.25, or 6.1 percent, to $39.01 in premarket trading.

J.C. Penney Co. said its net income dropped 78 percent during the third quarter on a big expense its in pension plan. Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge for retailers, slid 4.6 percent. But it boosted its profit and sales outlook and said it is selling more goods at regular price. Penney’s shares gained $1.36, or 4.6 percent, to $30.75.

Those reports followed a stronger-than-expected profit from The Walt Disney Co., which said late Thursday that improved revenue at its cable, broadcast and movie studio units helped it post an 18 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings.

Bond prices retreated in early trading. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, inched up to 3.46 percent from 3.45 percent late Thursday. The government wrapped up $81 billion in bond auctions for the week on Thursday, issuing $16 billion of 30-year notes.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average slipped 0.4 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.7 percent. In late morning trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index was up 0.1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3 percent.