By Will Horner

U.S. stock futures wavered as investors awaited fresh data on the health of the economy and another batch of earnings.

Stocks have struggled this week as slowing data has heightened fears about the economy, but Federal Reserve officials have signaled further rate hikes could still be needed to ease inflation.

"We are in the early stages of a labor-market slowdown and the early stages of an inflation slowdown, but neither is enough yet to stop the Fed from tightening," said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. "It is a fairly bearish outlook."

In recent market action: 


   -- U.S. stock futures were mixed, with the three major indexes on course to 
      end the week with small losses. S&P 500 futures weakened 0.1%, while 
      Nasdaq-100 futures declined 0.3%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures 
      inched up 0.1%. 
   -- Oil prices inched up but were set to end the week sharply lower. Brent 
      crude oil futures edged up 0.6% to $81.59, on course for a 5.5% weekly 
      decline. 
   -- Gold prices fell 0.9% to $2,001 a troy ounce. 
   -- Readings for the services and manufacturing sectors are due. The data are 
      expected to point to a slowdown in activity, according to forecasts 
      compiled by The Wall Street Journal. 
   -- Investors are parsing another batch of earnings reports including from 
      Procter & Gamble. Out of 84 companies on the S&P 500 that have reported 
      earnings as of late Thursday, 76% have beaten forecasts, according to 
      FactSet. 
   -- Overseas stock markets were mostly in the red. The Stoxx Europe 600 edged 
      0.1% down. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 1.6%, while Japan's 
      Nikkei 225 weakened 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite index dropped nearly 
      2%.

--This article was automatically generated by MarketWatch.

Write to Will Horner at william.horner@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-21-23 0921ET