Markets are in a holding pattern as investors anticipate the next moves from the U.S. Federal Reserve and wait for more details on Twitter’s IPO plans.
U.S. stock futures were drifting sideways Friday morning.
Twitter grabbed plenty of headlines when the social networking site revealed after the closing bell Thursday that it had issued a confidential filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a planned IPO.
Investors were awaiting more details on the public float, and also eyeing a batch of economic releases due later in the day. The data could increase the likelihood that the Federal Reserve’s will decide to begin scaling back its quantitative easing program at a meeting next week.
The Fed’s bond buying drive has helped push stocks to record highs, and investors have worried that any sort of “tapering” will deflate the markets.
“The current expectation is that we’ll see a small notional tapering at next week’s Fed meeting,” said Simon Smith, chief economist at FxPro.
A handful of data is due out Friday, including the U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly retail sales report at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the latest edition of its producer price index at the same time. The University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters releases a report on consumer sentiment at 9:55 a.m., and the Census Bureau issues its monthly business inventories report at 10 a.m.
Traders also continued to watch for developments on the Syrian conflict. The threat of U.S.-led military strikes against the Middle Eastern country has receded as Secretary of State John Kerry continues to pursue diplomatic negotiations over Syria’s chemical weapons.
U.S. stocks closed with mild losses Thursday, with the S&P 500 index snapping a seven-day winning streak.
European markets posted early falls Friday, while most major Asian indexes also closed in the red.
