07:20 AM EST, 12/27/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were down before the bell on Friday as traders await new catalysts to steer market direction with the year-end approaching.

Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3% before the opening bell, while the Nasdaq was off 0.4%. The majority of Asian and European exchanges were pointing higher.

On the economic calendar, the international trade in goods, retail inventories and wholesale inventories reports for November post at 8:30 am ET. The weekly EIA domestic natural-gas supplies and petroleum inventories reports are due at 10:30 am and 1 pm, respectively.

The weekly Baker Hughes domestic oil-and-gas rig count is also scheduled for a 1 pm release.

Shares of Quantum-Si (QSI) jumped 39% while QuantumScape ( QS ) advanced 3.8%. Rigetti Computing ( RGTI ) gained 9.9% while SoundHound AI ( SOUN ) ticked down about 1% after closing the previous session up 20%.

Before the opening bell, bitcoin inclined 1.4% to $96,762, West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.9% to $70.24 a barrel, yields on 10-year Treasuries increased 3.6 basis points to 4.62% and gold fell 0.4% to $2,644 an ounce.