Wall Street set to open lower on tepid earnings

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - U.S. stock indexes looked set to open slightly lower on Friday, as investors took cues from earnings reports of industrial heavyweights General Electric and Honeywell.

Shares of GE fell 3 percent in premarket trading after the company results beat estimates but posted a nearly 60 percent decline in profit.

Honeywell International edged up 0.1 percent after the technology and manufacturing company reported a rise in its second-quarter profit.

Microsoft fell 0.8 percent, a day after the company reported strong fourth-quarter earnings.

Attention will turn to earnings from big tech names next week, including Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook.

The Nasdaq notched its 10th straight record close on Thursday, marking its best streak since February 2015.

The tech sector has been the best performing S&P sector this year, despite concerns over stretched valuation, as investors look for growth in an otherwise low-growth environment and sectors that are relatively immune from a policy gridlock in Washington.

"If tech earnings were to disappoint, it might finally be the thing that causes a correction, even if it's a small one," said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.

Stocks ended little changed on Wall Street on Thursday as a deal between Sears and Amazon weighed on home improvement retailers, along with weak earnings.

Still, overall earnings are expected to be good with analysts expecting earnings to have climbed 8.6 percent, above the 8-percent rise projected at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. About 15 percent of S&P 500 companies have posted results so far.

"The earning season has been good so far and CEOs are also painting a good picture. A lot of people are booking profits and readjusting their positions. It's been a pretty good year so far and people are taking money off the table," said Kinahan.

Dow e-minis were down 27 points, or 0.13 percent, with 15,598 contracts changing hands at 8:34 a.m. ET (1234 GMT).

S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.5 points, or 0.02 percent, with 118,646 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.22 percent, on volume of 24,089 contracts.

Visa rose 0.8 percent after the world's largest payments network operator reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its annual earnings forecast.

EBay fell 4 percent as the company warned that adjusted profit this quarter could fall below analysts' estimates.

Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services provider, was up 1.5 percent after it reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue.

Colgate-Palmolive fell 2.2 percent after its revenue came in below estimates.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Arun Koyyur)