Wall Street flat admit rush of bank earnings, inflation data

Wall Street is essentially flat before the opening bell as quarterly earnings from banks and new inflation data pulled markets in different directions.

Futures for the S&P 500 were unchanged before the bell Friday while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up less than 0.1%.

Shares in big U.S. banks are mixed even as most reported healthy profits that beat Wall Street expectations.

JPMorgan shares recovered after it reported a 25% jump in profits from a year ago as it cashed in billions of dollars of its holdings in Visa Inc. Its shares were up only slightly, however.

Wells Fargo fared worse despite beating Wall Street expectations for profit and revenue. Its shares tumbled nearly 6% after it reported its net interest income fell 9% from a year ago. The San Francisco bank said it doesn't expect that figure to improve for the remainder of the fiscal year.

A day after the government reported that consumer inflation eased in June, a report Friday showed that prices at wholesale level rose, a sign that some price pressures remain elevated.

Thursday's inflation report bolstered Wall Street's belief that relief on interest rates may come as soon as September.

Bond yields held steady early Friday after falling a day earlier as traders built bets for the Federal Reserve to soon begin lowering its main interest rate. It's been sitting for nearly a year at its highest level in more than two decades. The yield on the 2-year Treasury settled at 4.51% early Friday, while the 10-year was 4.21%.

Wall Street wants lower interest rates to release the pressure that's built up on the economy because of how expensive it's become to borrow money to buy houses, cars, or anything on credit cards. Fed officials, though, have been saying they want to see "more good data" on inflation before making a move.

Wall Street saw Thursday's report, which showed milder price increases than expected from a year earlier for gasoline, cars and other things U.S. consumers bought during June, as providing just that.

Elsewhere, European markets were higher at midday, with Germany's DAX gaining 0.3% and the CAC 40 in Paris climbing 0.7%. In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.2%.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 2.5% to 41,190.68.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 2.6% to 18,293.38 and the Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 2,971.29 after data showed that China's exports increased by 8.6% in June, better than market expectations.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.9% at 7,959.30. South Korea's Kospi slipped 1.2% to 2,857.00.

Elsewhere, Bangkok's SET edged 0.1% higher. Taiwan's Taiex declined 2%, with Taiwan Semiconductor losing 3.7%. The company earlier rose after announcing that its revenue climbed nearly 33% in June compared with the same period last year, but followed Wall Street tech giants lower.

U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 78 cents to $83.40 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 58 cents to $85.98 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar lost 2.1% against the yen overnight and traded as low as 157.43 yen, fueling speculation that Japanese authorities may have intervened to amplify the impact of the milder U.S. inflation data. It regained some of its losses on Friday, rising to 158.94 yen from 158.80 yen.

The euro rose to $1.0888 from $1.0865.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.9% to 5,584.54. The Dow rose 0.1% to 39,753.75, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 2% to 18,283.41.