U.S. stock futures are pointing higher in pre-market trading for Friday, July 22. The Dow Futures are at 18464.0 for a gain of 28.00 points. The S&P 500 Futures are at 2162.0 for a gain of 4.00 points. The Nasdaq Futures are at 4647.0 for a gain of 8.75 points. The Russell Futures are at 1203.0 for a gain of 3.90 points.

In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere Japan’s Nikkei 225 is lower at 16627.25 for a loss of -182.97 points or -1.09 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is lower at 21964.27 for a loss of -36.22 points or -0.16 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite is lower at 3012.82 for a loss of -26.19 points or -0.86 percent. India’s S&P BSE Sensex is at 27803.24 for a gain of 92.72 points or 0.33 percent. In Europe, the FTSE 100 is higher at 6718.77 for a gain of 18.88 points or 0.28 percent. Germany’s DAX is lower at 10149.57 for a loss of -6.64 points or -0.07 percent. France’s CAC 40 is higher at 4382.46 for a gain of 6.21 points or 0.14 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 is lower at 339.91 for a loss of -0.67 points or -0.20 percent.

Friday’s Factors and Events

On Friday, only two leading economic reports are on the calendar for the day. The PMI Manufacturing Index Flash Report will be released at 9:45 AM EST and the Baker-Hughes Rig Count will be released at 1:00 PM EST. Manufacturing and oil prices will be on close watch for the day.

Stocks trading actively in pre-market trading include: NVIDIA, Berkshire Hathaway, Cisco, Facebook, General Mills, Starbucks and Newmont Mining.

Earnings reports for the second quarter will continue on Friday. Approximately 20 publicly traded companies will report earnings.

For the day the focus will continue to be on earnings. Further positive earnings reports could help the market indexes set new highs. Dow Jones Industrial Average component General Electric reported an earnings beat before the opening bell. Revenue for the second quarter was $33.5 billion, up 14.6 percent from the comparable quarter and beating analysts’ average estimate by $1.74 billion. Earnings per share were $0.51 beating by $0.05.

Thursday’s Activity

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18517.23 for a loss of -77.80 points or -0.42 percent. The S&P 500 was also down, closing at 2165.17 for a loss of -7.85 points or -0.36 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed lower at 5073.90 for a loss of -16.03 points or -0.31 percent.

Source: DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite. Google Finance.

Other notable index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000, lower at 1203.84 for a loss of -5.90 points or -0.49 percent. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index was lower at 736.99 for a loss of -4.34 points or -0.59 percent; the Dow Jones Total Stock Market Index closing at 22335.04 for a loss of -81.43 points or -0.36 percent; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closing at 1542.06 for a loss of -7.45 points or -0.48 percent; the S&P 100 Index closing at 959.07 for a loss of -3.37 points or -0.35 percent; the Russell 3000 closing at 1277.26 for a loss of -4.71 points or -0.37 percent; the Russell 1000 closing at 1198.61 for a loss of -4.31 points or -0.36 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index closing at 622.02 for a loss of -1.34 points or -0.21 percent.