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Netflix ( NFLX ) falls after dour Q2 forecast

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Paramount up on likely Sony Pictures, Apollo buyout bid

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Futures: Dow down 0.01%, S&P up 0.03%, Nasdaq down 0.09%

(Updated at 8:31 a.m. ET/1231 GMT)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Shristi Achar A

April 19 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes eyed a flat open on Friday as

initial jitters about an escalation in the Middle East conflict

subsided, while Netflix ( NFLX ) dropped after forecasting

current-quarter revenue below estimates.

Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on Friday in what

sources described as an

Israeli attack

, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had

no plans for retaliation - a response that appeared gauged

towards averting a region-wide war.

"Once the details were released, the markets were

relieved and as you can see, the markets are off their lows,"

said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital

Securities.

"As far as the conflict is concerned, that is always

going to be a worry factor for the market. The earnings are more

of a fundamental than the geopolitical concerns."

Netflix ( NFLX ) slumped 6.4% in premarket trading following

the streaming video pioneer's lackluster second-quarter

forecast.

Shares of other streaming services providers such as Walt

Disney ( DIS ) and Roku ( ROKU ) retreated 0.7% and 1.2%,

respectively.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed lower for

the fifth straight session on Thursday, as economic data and

comments from Fed officials suggested that the U.S. central bank

was unlikely to cut interest rates in the near future.

Federal Reserve policymakers have coalesced around the idea

of keeping borrowing costs where they are until perhaps well

into the year, given slow and bumpy progress on inflation, and a

still-strong U.S. economy.

Equities were rattled this week as investors readjusted

their expectations over by how much the Fed would cut rates this

year, with both the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow poised

for a third weekly decline, while the Nasdaq was set for its

fourth consecutive weekly loss, if current trend holds.

Money markets are now pricing in about 39 basis points (bps)

of cuts from the central bank this year, down from around 150

bps seen at the beginning of 2024, according to LSEG data.

U.S. stocks suffered an outflow of $4.1 billion in the

latest week, according to

Bank of America's weekly 'Flow Show' report

, their largest two-week outflow since December 2022.

The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall

Street's "fear gauge", was last up 0.61 points at 18.61 after

breaching the psychologically important level of 20 earlier in

the session.

At 8:31 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 3 points, or

0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.03%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 15.25 points, or 0.09%.

Shares of Paramount Global ( PARAA ) jumped 8.3% after a

person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Sony

Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management ( APO ) are

discussing making a joint bid for the company.

Procter & Gamble ( PG ) slipped 1.6% after the consumer

goods giant missed third-quarter net sales estimates.

Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ) fell 1.4% after Jefferies

downgraded the cosmetics retailer to "hold" from "buy".