Despite a busy schedule for corporate announcements, investors look to have made an early start on the weekend, with indices little changed.
The Nasdaq Composite was barely changed at 4871, while the Dow Jones roused itself enough to rise a couple of points to 17,144.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, was three points firmer at 2,027.
Investors may well be sitting on their hands ahead of Monday’s gross domestic product (GDP) data from China, which could provide further evidence of a slowdown in the People’s Republic’s economy.
“If the world’s second largest economy fails to achieve its 7% Q3 GDP targets then global sentiment may be dealt a frightening blow once again. This may translate to a strong decline in Asian equities in the new trading week, regardless of the expectations of further monetary policy from China,” suggested Lukman Otunuga, a research analyst at foreign exchange trader FXTM.
Closer to home, job openings eased by 298,000 to 5.37mln in August, the Labor Department revealed.
Hotels and casinos operator Wynn Resorts (NYSE:WYNN) eased US$1.32 to US$72.44 after its Macau operations posted an alarming decline of almost 40% yesterday.
Toys maker Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) missed its earnings estimates in results published after the bell last night, but investors seem not to be in a mood to throw their toys out of the pram, with the shares up 4.4% at US$23.52.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) was up 1.8% after a solid performance in what chief executive and chairman Jeff Immelt said was “a volatile environment” in the third quarter.
Underlying earnings per share, at 29 cents, were better than the figure of 25 cents analysts had penciled in for the industrial giant.
Third quarter results from technology firm Honeywell (NYSE:HON) were a mixed bag, with earnings ahead of Wall Street’s expectations and sales below them.
The maker of aviation components and control systems’ earnings per share of US$1.60 topped the consensus forecast of US$1.55, but revenue of US$9.61bn was down 5% year-on-year and less than the US$9.85bn analysts had predicted.
The shares were on offer at US$96.41, down a little more than two dollars.