Futures indicated a lower open for Wall Street Friday, as mixed earnings from General Electric eclipsed strong results from big techs.
General Electric (GE is CNBC's parent company) beat analyst forecasts with its third-quarter earnings, but missed expectations for its quarterly revenue.
Another key earnings report likely to have a strong impact on whether Wall Street's major averages can advance and finish their second consecutive week of gains will be Dow component Bank of America , which will report before the open.
We'll also see earnings reports from oilfield services company Halliburton , and toymaker Mattel before the bell.
Bank of America made news late yesterday when it was revealed that CEO Ken Lewis, who is retiring at year's end, has agreed to give up his salary and other compensation for 2009.
We did get upbeat reports from Google , IBM , and Advanced Micro Devices after the bell, though investors took the opportunity to sell IBM after a considerable run-up over the past few months.
- Google Beats on Profit, Revenue; Shares Climb
- IBM Beats Forecasts, Raises Outlook; But Stock Falls
- AMD Sales Better than Expected, CPU Demand Rises
Several economic reports will also be in the mix: the Treasury releases its so called "TIC" data at 9 am New York time, the measure of capital inflows and outflows to and from the United States.
At 9:15 am New York time, the Federal Reserve is out with September figures on industrial production and factory capacity utilization. Economists are looking for an increase of 0.2 percent in industrial production, and capacity utilization of 69.8 percent, up 0.2 percent from the prior month.
At 9:55 am New York time, the University of Michigan is out with its preliminary October consumer sentiment reading, expected to come in at 73.8, compared to the final September reading of 73.5.
At 10:15 am New York time, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher will deliver a keynote address at SMU's business school in Dallas.
— Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk, contributed to this report.