U.S. stock futures were a touch higher on Friday, at the end of a week in which stocks have struggled for direction amid uncertainty about the ongoing government shutdown.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 31 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.1%, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were up by the same amount.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 2 basis points to 4.12%. The dollar slipped 0.2% against a weighted basket of its peers, and gold futures ticked up 0.1% to $3,976 an ounce.
Stocks slipped on Thursday despite a couple of solid earnings reports, but it’s tough to see what could spark a larger selloff. The three major indexes are still near record highs with the market starved of data due to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which is entering its 10th day.
It’s been a “dull and uninspiring” week for the market, Michael Brown, a strategist at the foreign exchange brokerage Pepperstone, said.
“What we seem to be looking at, then, is a market that remains firmly in ‘buy everything’ mode, and will probably remain so for the time being, at least given the aforementioned dearth of catalysts that could potentially derail things,” he added. “I’d wager that said path remains intact, even despite yesterday’s wobble.”
One factor that could move markets on Friday is the release of preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment data, which should give Wall Street a better sense of how Americans are feeling about the economy as the government shutdown drags on.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson is due to give a speech on the central bank’s monetary policy framework this afternoon.