Stock futures steady as North Korea keeps talks on table, oil weighs

[May 25, 2018]  By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stock market futures steadied on Friday, helped by a measured response by North Korea to President Donald Trump's cancelling of a planned summit, while a slump in oil prices pressured energy stocks.

North Korea said it was still open to talks with the United States, saying it hoped the "Trump formula" could resolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons program.

The three main U.S. indexes ended only slightly lower on Thursday, recovering from what market participants said was a knee-jerk reaction to the cancelling of the summit.

Energy stocks were weighed down by a more than 2 percent drop in oil prices after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they were ready to ease supply curbs that have pushed prices to their highest since 2014. [O/R]

Shares of Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> dipped 1.0 percent in premarket trading, while Chevron <CVX.N> was off 1.0 percent. The S&P energy index <.SPNY> ended down 1.7 percent on Thursday.

At 7:30 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 6 points, or 0.02 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were down 0.5 points, or 0.02 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 10.75 points, or 0.15 percent.

Among other stocks, Foot Locker <FL.N> jumped 14.3 percent after it reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit. Nike <NKE.N>, for whom the footwear retailer is often seen as a leading indicator, gained 1.3 percent.

PayPal <PYPL.O> rose 1.2 percent after the company gave an upbeat long-term forecast on its investor day.

Design software maker Autodesk <ADSK.O> fell 4.8 percent after the AutoCAD owner forecast second-quarter profit below expectations.

Data due at 8:30 a.m. ET is likely to show overall orders for durable goods fell 1.4 percent in April, after rising 2.6 percent in March.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on "Financial Stability and Central Bank Transparency" at a conference in Stockholm, Sweden at 09:20 a.m. ET.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham)

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