Wall Street Eyes Muted Open as Ukraine Nerves Persist

WALL STREET - NEW YORK. U.S. stocks were set to open largely flat on Friday, with investors keeping a wary eye on developments in Ukraine heading into a long weekend.

Headlines around escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over a standoff with Ukraine have rattled markets this week, putting the main indexes on track for their second straight weekly losses.

Wall Street ended deeply in the red on Thursday after Moscow expelled deputy U.S. ambassador Bartle Gorman, and U.S. President Joe Biden said a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen in the next few days.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week, calming markets globally as investors hoped for a diplomatic solution to avert a military conflict.

At 8:57 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 44 points, or 0.13%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3.75 points, or 0.09%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 7.75 points, or 0.05%.

"The stock market will continue to be quite volatile until these important geopolitical uncertainties and monetary policy questions are clarified," said Christian Stocker, lead equity strategist at UniCredit Bank.

Expiration of monthly options contracts were seen adding to the day's volatility.

The CBOE volatility index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, was last up 26.94 points, well above its long-term average of 20.

Speculations about the Federal Reserve's policy tightening plans for the year added to the downbeat mood this week. A flurry of appearances from Fed members are scheduled on Friday. The Fed's next monetary policy decision is due in about a month's time.

"The worry is whether the pivot away from pandemic-era stimulus will squeeze economic growth and inject more turbulence across asset classes," said Stocker.

JPMorgan Chase rose 0.6% on Friday to lead gains among big banks in premarket trading.

Tesla was flat, while other megacap tech stocks such as Apple, Meta Platforms, Google, Amazon and Microsoft edged higher.

Lithium producer Livent Corp jumped 8.2% after forecasting upbeat 2022 revenue, while Deere & Co added 1% after the world's largest farm equipment maker raised its annual profit outlook.

DuPont climbed 4.1% after the industrial materials maker said it would sell most of its mobility and materials business for $11 billion to Celanese Corp. Shares of Celanese gained 3%.

Shake Shack Inc slumped 14.1% after the burger chain forecast first-quarter revenue below estimates as Omicron kept diners away and led to temporary restaurant closures.

Roku Inc tumbled 27.3% after the streaming platform's disappointing quarterly revenue and first-quarter outlook.

DraftKings Inc shed 15.2% after the sports betting company forecast a bigger-than anticipated 2022 loss.