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BlackRock ( BLK ) gains on Q1 profit rise

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Wells Fargo ( WFC ) falls after Q1 profit drop

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Futures down: Dow 0.33%, S&P 0.50%, Nasdaq 0.63%

(Updated at 6:55 a.m. ET/ 1055 GMT)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Shristi Achar A

April 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures traded

lower on Friday as investors assessed earnings reports from big

U.S. banks to gauge how corporate America has been faring in the

current high interest rate environment.

Big U.S. banks kicked off the first-quarter earnings season,

with Wells Fargo ( WFC ) dropping 2.6% in premarket trading

after its quarterly profit fell on decreased earnings from

customer interest payments.

JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM )

fell 3.6%, even as the lender's first-quarter

profit rose on higher interest payments.

BlackRock ( BLK ) rose 2% after the world's largest asset

manager posted a rise in first-quarter profit on higher fee

income.

"With the market now expecting higher for longer from the

Fed, net interest income should continue to be a pillar of

support for bank earnings in the future," Kathleen Brooks,

research director at XTB, said in a note.

Custodian bank State Street and Citigroup ( C/PN )

are also slated to report quarterly numbers later in the day.

For the upcoming quarterly results, earnings are expected to

grow 5% year-on-year, according to LSEG data.

The Dow and the S&P 500 eye weekly losses as

sentiment was roiled this week following a

hotter-than-anticipated inflation reading. That pushed traders

to scale back their enthusiasm around the U.S. Federal Reserve

cutting interest rates, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was

on track for its first weekly gain in three.

U.S. large-cap stocks suffered their largest weekly outflow

since December 2022 in the week to Wednesday, Bank of America

said.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed higher in the previous

session as fresh economic data rekindled hopes that inflation

remained in a cooling trend.

Money market participants see about a 50% chance of the Fed

bringing in the first interest-rate cut in July, according to

the CME FedWatch Tool.

Meanwhile, Boston Fed President Susan Collins is eyeing a

couple of interest-rate cuts this year, amid expectations that

it could take some time for inflation to return to its targeted

level.

Focus now turns to comments from Kansas City Fed President

Jeffrey Schmid, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and their

San Francisco counterpart Mary Daly later in the day, for hints

on the central bank's rate outlook.

On the data front, a preliminary reading of the University

of Michigan's overall index of consumer sentiment for April is

due at 10 a.m. ET.

At 6:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 129 points,

or 0.33%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 26.25 points, or

0.50%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 116 points, or

0.63%.

Among other stocks, data-center operator Applied Digital ( APLD )

slumped 11.7% in premarket trading after reporting a

bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Intel ( INTC )

dropped 2.1% each after a report that Chinese officials had told

the country's largest telecom carriers to phase out foreign

processors by 2027.