U.S. stock futures are pointing to a lower open a day after the markets broke a six-session losing streak.
Stocks have suffered this month as a raft of weak economic news dampened hopes about the pace of the global economic recovery. But shares rose Thursday after a report that U.S. exports hit a record in April.
The Dow has fallen 5 percent since June began. Traders fear that weaker hiring, industrial output, and a moribund housing market are reversing a bull market that has lifted the Dow Jones industrial average by 20 percent over the past year.
Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,020. Standard & Poor's 500 futures lost 3, or 0.2 percent, to 1,279. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 5, or 0.2 percent, to 2,245.
Unless stocks recover sharply on Friday, the market is likely to mark its sixth straight week of losses. That would be the longest weekly losing streak since the fall of 2002. The market's most recent seven-week losing streak began in May 2001, as the dot-com bubble deflated.
Investors responded to Thursday's upswing by returning to higher-risk equities, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note above 3 percent. By early Friday, economic jitters had returned. The yield fell to 2.97 percent. Bond yields rise as bond prices fall.
A smaller than anticipated Chinese trade surplus in May and a bigger than anticipated decline in British industrial production in April fueled fears that growth is overseas, not just in the U.S.
Global stock markets were mixed. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares nearly flat, while Germany's DAX edged up. The CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent lower.
Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 224 index rose 0.5 percent to close at 9,514.44, while South Korea's Kospi index slid 1.2 percent to 2,046.67 after the Bank of Korea raised its key interest rate for the fifth time in less than a year as it fights inflation. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended lower, while the Shanghai Composite Index edged up.
Exports from China decreased in May and indicators of industrial activity there continued to weaken. Economists fear that Beijing's efforts to temper rapid growth with lending and investing curbs might cool growth too quickly.
Weakness in China could hurt the volatile global commodities trade if it cuts into demand for oil, iron ore and other industrial inputs for which China is a key customer.
China's mixed trade report followed surprisingly strong data for U.S. trade that helped lift stocks on Thursday. The government said on Thursday that U.S. exports hit a record in April.
Trade factors into the government's broad calculation of economic growth, known as gross domestic product.
The euro continued to fall after a recent-one-month high amid signs that policymakers in Europe disagree sharply over how to deal with the Greek debt crisis.
In the oil markets, prices remained over $100 a barrel in the wake of the surprise decision earlier this week from the OPEC oil cartel to keep production levels unchanged. Benchmark crude for July delivery was down 40 cents at $101.53 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Thursday marked the market's first gains this month. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 75.42 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 12,124.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.44, or 0.7 percent, to 1,289.00. The Nasdaq composite rose 9.49, or 0.4 percent, to 2,684.87.
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