07:12 AM EST, 01/17/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were trending higher ahead of Friday's opening bell as traders await the final round of bank earnings for the week.

Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% each in premarket activity, while the Nasdaq added 0.5%. Asian exchanges were mixed to lower while European bourses were tracking in the green midday on the continent.

Shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) dropped 11% pre-bell as the transportation and logistics company reported mixed fourth-quarter results. Rivian Automotive ( RIVN ) advanced 3.2% as the automaker secured an up to $6.6 billion loan from the US Department of Energy for the construction of a plant in Georgia.

Truist Financial ( TFC ) , Schlumberger ( SLB ) , Fastenal ( FAST ) , Wipro ( WIT ) , State Street (STT), Huntington Bancshares ( HBAN ) , Regions Financial ( RF ) , Citizens Financial Group ( CFG ) and Webster Financial ( WBS ) report their latest financial results early Friday, among others.

On the economic calendar, the housing starts and permits report for December is out at 8:30 am ET, followed by the industrial production bulletin for the same month at 9:15 am. The weekly Baker Hughes domestic oil-and-gas rig count posts at 1 pm.

Before the opening bell, bitcoin increased 1.8% to $102,244, West Texas Intermediate crude oil edged up 0.3% to $78.88 per barrel, yields on 10-year Treasuries retreated 1.6 basis points to 4.59% and gold declined 0.6% to $2,734 an ounce.