Stock market day with quarterly results from major US banks

Stock market trading on Friday will mostly be dominated by quarterly figures from major US banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, BNY Mellon and Wells Fargo. It opens the earnings season on Wall Street.

Investors’ focus will be on investment banking performance, among others. There have been very few IPOs due to volatility in stock markets as central banks raised interest rates to counter high inflation. Things are also slow on the M&A front. As a result, banks are seeing income from advising on IPOs and mergers under pressure. In addition, expectations for the future are taken into account.

Apart from US banks, quarterly reports are also published by major asset manager BlackRock, health insurer United Health and airline Delta Air Lines.

Preliminary data on German economic growth for the full year 2022 will be released later in the day. The UK economy grew 0.1 percent in November from a month earlier, the British Office for National Statistics said. It was expected to shrink.

Stock markets in New York and Europe saw gains on Thursday following US inflation data. The Amsterdam AEX index rose 0.4 percent to 741.90 points. Wall Street’s main index rose 0.6 percent. Financial markets in Asia were mostly in the green on Friday.

Among the companies at Beursplein 5, insurer NN Group could move due to HSBC’s advisory downsizing. The British bank downgraded NN’s investment recommendation from buy to hold.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) production has resumed at Shell’s flagship installation off Australia’s west coast, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources. Production was halted last month due to a fire. Prelude accounts for nearly a third of Shell’s total LNG production in Australia.

The euro traded at $1.0834 on Friday morning, up from $1.0820 the previous day. A barrel of US oil was slightly cheaper at $78.28 a barrel. Brent crude was down 0.3 percent at $83.81 a barrel.