- US equities futures fell as a series of underwhelming results marked the start of earnings season.
- Contracts on the S&P 500 increased losses to 0.3% as the largest US banks' equities, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, plummeted more than 2% after missing trading revenue estimates.
- An otherwise optimistic view for markets in 2024 is being complicated by a decline in corporate profit and the possibility of a broader conflict in the Middle East. JPMorgan shares gain 1.9% in premarket trading, erasing an earlier decline, after the firm forecast net interest income for 2024 of about $90 billion.
- After the US and its allies launched coordinated military operations against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, WTI crude saw a 4% increase.
- Gains in crude prices spread to currencies linked to commodities, such as the Norwegian krone and the Canadian dollar, and Europe's STOXX 600 increased by up to 1%, helped by oil companies Total and Shell.
- Following the launch of the first US exchange-traded funds for Bitcoin on Thursday, which saw the exchange of $4.6 billion worth of shares in the first day of trading, cryptocurrency stocks continued their downward trend in premarket trading.
