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Futures: Dow up 0.17%, S&P up 0.03%, Nasdaq down 0.07%

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

a tight range on Friday as investors awaited earnings reports

from big U.S. banks to gauge how corporate America has been

faring in the current high interest rate environment.

Friday marks the unofficial start to the quarterly earnings

season, with results from three major U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase

& Co ( JPM ), Citigroup ( C/PN ) and Wells Fargo & Co ( WFC ), due

before the opening bell.

BlackRock ( BLK ), the world's largest asset manager, and

custodian bank State Street are also slated to report

their 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, which 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

remains in a cooling trend.

Money market participants see a more than 50% chance of the

Fed bringing in the first interest rate cut in July, according

to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Focus would also be on remarks 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 4:34 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 67 points, or

0.17%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.03%,

and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 13.5 points, or 0.07%.

Among individual stocks, data-center operator Applied

Digital ( APLD ) dropped 10.7% in premarket trading after

reporting a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.