U.S. futures slightly higher as investors continue to chew over earnings

Stock Markets. Investing.

Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Friday, bouncing back after Thursday’s decline, as investors continued to chew over earnings report and with only one data point on the U.S. economic calendar

The blue-chip Dow futures gained 31 points, or 0.17%, by 10:55AM GMT, or 6:55AM ET, the S&P 500 futures rose 4 points, or 0.20%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futurestraded up 9 points, or 0.20%.

Investors were set on Friday to price in mostly disappointing earnings from a slew of firms that reported after the close on Thursday.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) fell 3% in pre-market trade on disappointing comparable sales.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) was in the same boat, reporting worse than expected sales that sent shares down more than 1%.

PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) was down despite earnings that beat consensus and after announcing a tie-up with Visa.

Visa Inc (NYSE:V) itself reported earnings that beat consensus but disappointed on revenues.

AT&T (NYSE:T) was down around 1% as revenues missed forecasts despite a 23% jump.

Not all the earnings news was bad as Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) jumped almost 9% after its quarterly loss was not as large as feared.

On balance the reports released so far on Friday were positive.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) traded up 2% in the pre-market after both revenue and earnings beat estimates.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR), Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK), SunTrust Banks Inc (NYSE:STI), NorthWestern Corporation (NYSE:NWE), Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:HON) and Textron (NYSE:TXT) were among other companies producing better-than-expected earnings.

On the economic front, Markit will release its preliminary July manufacturing PMI for the U.S. on Friday at 13:45GMT, or 9:45AM ET, in the day’s only major data point stateside.

In oil markets, crude managed to turn around and quote slight gains in midday European trade as U.S. traders began to hit their desks on Friday, despite continuing concerns over the global supply glut.

Investors looked ahead to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes’ data later in the day that will gauge the ongoing recovery in U.S. drilling activity.

The prior release last Friday showed that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S.increased by six last week to 357, the third straight weekly rise and the sixth increase in seven weeks.

The renewed gain in U.S. drilling activity fueled speculation that domestic production could be on the verge of rebounding in the weeks ahead, underlining worries over a supply glut.

U.S. crude futures gained 0.36% to $44.91 by 10:56AM GMT, or 6:56AM ET, while Brent oiltraded up 0.54% to $46.45.