Futures Mixed, Asia Down After U.S. Markets Close Lower Thursday
After closing lower Thursday, futures indicate traders aren't sure how they'd like to end the week as they digest another basket of earnings reports Friday and wait for more information from the Federal Reserve on where rates are headed at next week's meeting.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.01%, unchanged for the S&P 500 and down 0.02% for the Nasdaq at 9:39 p.m. EDT.
Strong earnings and the latest heartening information on the unemployed in the U.S. are bolstering the belief that the Fed may have to intervene this year to keep the economy from overheating. Fears of a pending rate hike helped the Dow snap a nine-day winning streak Thursday and pulled indexes lower in New York across the board.
The Fed's next meeting isn't until Wednesday.
The Dow closed down 0.42%, the S&P 0.36% and Nasdaq 0.31% as concerns over surprisingly robust economic data raised the specter of a rate hike. Still, most experts don't expect anything more than just talk until late in the year.
Asia opened down early Friday as investors in Japan wait to hear what kind of stimulus Tokyo is planning to thwart deflation and the effects of the Brexit. The Nikkei was off 1.01%, the Kospi in South Korea 0.16% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.4% at 8:59 p.m. EDT.
Europe was no different after the European Central Bank said it wouldn't yet take action to support the European economy. Germany's DAX gained 0.14% Thursday, but the FTSE in London slipped 0.43% and the Cac in Paris, 0.08%.
The pound recovered slightly in early Asian trading Friday after falling Thursday. The currency was up 0.02% at $1.323 at 9:28 p.m. EDT. And oil continued to slide in Asia after falling in the U.S. on Thursday. West Texas crude was off 0.2% at $44.66 while industry standard Brent pared 0.04%, to $46.18, at 9:18 p.m. EDT.
Earnings weighed on extended trading Thursday with Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Report off 2.66% at $56.07. The Seattle coffee giant said sales rose just 7%, to $5.2 billion, as growth at same-store sales slipped below the 5% mark for the first time in 25 quarters. While sales growth slowed to 4% in the U.S., sales in its European outlets fell 1% as terrorism affected tourism and, in turn, coffee sales.
Shares of music streamer Pandora Media (P) tumbled 7.4%, to $11.11, after it said it lost 33 cents in the last quarter on revenue of $343 million. The loss is better than the 34 cents forecast by analysts, but investors are concerned about the company's costly plans to double revenue.
The Wall Street Journal also reported Thursday that Liberty Media (LMCA) , the owner of satellite radio company, Sirius XM Holdings, had recently offered to buy Pandora for $15 a share. Pandora execs wanted $20.
Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, is long SBUX.