By Devik Jain

(Reuters] – U.S. Stock Futures edged higher Friday. They pointed to weekly gains of major indexes. These results were ahead of Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE) results, which are expected to conclude a strong third-quarter earnings seasons for banks.

Premarket trading saw Wall Street’s top dealmaker see his shares rise 0.7%

Strong performance from several banks including Citigroup (NYSE: Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) The company saw its largest daily percentage increase since March early, on Thursday. Meanwhile data on inflation and labor markets eased concerns about higher rates.

A Commerce Department report is due to be released at 08:30 AM. ET is expected to report retail sales falling in September due to continued shortages of motor vehicles, and other goods.

This data will be presented against the background of rising oil prices, labor shortages, and disruptions to supply chains. These factors have rattled investors, and led to market choppiness.

At 06.33 a.m. ET was up 147 point or 0.42%. ET was up 15 point or 0.34%. ET was up 41.25 or 0.27%.

The week is moving into rates-sensitive names like Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ.com Inc. (NASDAQ.com:), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ.com:), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ.:) and Google parent Alphabet(NASDAQ.:) appeared to be set for continued growth, their shares increasing.

Moderna (NASDAQ:) Inc gained 3.0% following a U.S. FDA panel’s recommendation to give booster shots for its COVID-19 vaccine to Americans 65 years and older, and those at high risk.

Western Digital (NASDAQ): The stock of storage hardware company Goldman Sachs was downgraded to “neutral”, from “buy” by 2.5%.

The shares of blockchain and cryptocurrency-related businesses Coinbase (NASDAQ 🙂 Global and China-based SOSs (NASDAQ :), Marathon Digital grew between 2.3% – 3.9% when bitcoin reached $60,000 for its first time since April.

Energy firms include Chevron Corp (NYSE 🙂 Exxon Mobil (NYSE): Gained approximately half a percent, following prices which reached $85 per barrel [O/R]