Stocks May Experience Choppy Trading Amid Focus On Greece - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - With traders focused on developments overseas, stocks may show a lack of direction in early trading on Friday. The major index futures are currently mixed, as the Dow futures are up by 21 points but the Nasdaq futures are down by 5 points.

Continued uncertainty about the situation in Greece may lead to choppy trading on Wall Street, as the debt-laden country and its creditors continue to struggle to reach an agreement.

A Eurogroup meeting on Thursday ended without an agreement, leading European finance ministers to schedule another session on Saturday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the weekend's talks will be "decisive," noting that time is quickly running out.

Merkel told reporters early Friday that European leaders "agreed that everything must be done to find a solution on Saturday."

The last-ditch attempt to reach an agreement comes as Greece has warned that it will be unable to make a 1.6 billion euro payment to the International Monetary Fund at the end of the month without further aid.

Deutsche Bank economists Mark Wall and Marco Stringa, said, "We continue to believe the most likely outcome is a deal that keeps Greece in the euro area."

However, they added, "Time is running extremely short and the risk of accident rises as a consequence. One cannot rule out scenarios such as non-payment plus capital controls or even pre-emptive capital controls."

Amid the focus on Greece, traders seem likely to overlook the University of Michigan's revised report on U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of June.

Economists expect the final reading on the consumer sentiment index for June to come in at 94.6, unchanged from the initial estimate but up from 90.7 in May.

Among individual stocks, shares of Nike (NKE) are moving notably higher in pre-market trading after the athletic shoe and apparel maker reported better than expected fourth quarter results.

Sport apparel retailer Finish Line (FINL) is also likely to see early strength after reporting first quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates.

On the other hand, shares of Micron Technology (MU) are likely to come under pressure after the chip maker reported weaker than expected third quarter results and provided disappointing guidance.

After seeing modest strength throughout much of morning trading on Thursday, stocks came under pressure in the afternoon. With the downturn on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back further off Tuesday's record closing high.

The major averages finished the session modestly lower. The Dow fell 75.71 points or 0.4 percent to 17,890.36, the Nasdaq edged down 10.22 points or 0.2 percent to 5,112.19 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.27 points or 0.3 percent to 2,102.31.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Friday, with China's Shanghai Composite Index showing a particularly steep 7.4 percent drop. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled by 1.8 percent, while Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index is down by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.6 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are sliding $0.43 to $59.27 a barrel after falling $0.57 to $59.70 a barrel on Thursday. An ounce of gold is currently trading at $1,172.80, up $1 from the previous session's close of $1,171.80. On Thursday, gold fell $1.10.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 123.71 yen compared to the 123.63 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Thursday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1200 compared to yesterday's $1.1205.