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5 Things You Should Know Before the Stock Market Opens

Written by: Joseph Woelfel 07/20/12 - 6:14 AM EDT
Tickers in this article: MSFT GOOG

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a mixed open on Wall Street on Friday amid weak U.S. economic data and despite positive U.S. earnings.

European shares were moving lower Friday. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.4% to 8,669.87 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4%.

In the U.S. on Thursday, the major equity averages finished with mild gains Thursday as a technology rally led by IBM offset a weak batch of economic data. Weekly jobless claims in the U.S. rose 34,000 to a three-week high of 386,000 and an indicator of regional manufacturing came in much weaker than anticipated.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average added nearly 35 points, or 0.27%, to close Thursday at 12,943. The blue-chip index, which has risen in four of the past five sessions, is now up 5.9% year to date.

The economic calendar in the U.S. is empty on Friday.

General Electric(GE) is expected by analysts Friday to post second-quarter profit of 37 cents a share in the June-ended period on revenue of $36.79 billion.

The industrial conglomerate and Dow component has topped Wall Street's consensus view in seven of the past eight quarters, beating the estimate by an average of 8.6% in those instances.

Google(GOOG) , the Internet search giant, reported Thursday second-quarter non-GAAP earnings of $3.35 billion, or $10.12 a share, on revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs of $8.36 billion. Analysts were looking for a profit of $10.04 a share on revenue of $8.41 billion.

Microsoft (MSFT) posted Thursday a non-GAAP quarterly profit of $6.93 billion, or 73 cents a share, for its fiscal fourth quarter on revenue of $18.06 billion. Analysts were looking for earnings of 62 cents a share on revenue of $18.13 billion.

Microsoft, the software giant, saw strong growth in its server and tools business in the quarter.

A masked gunman in Aurora, Colo., killed 14 people and injured 50 others at an early Friday showing of new Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," according to reports.