NEW YORK (AP) — Stock futures headed higher as two major U.S. banks posted quarterly earnings Friday and JPMorgan revealed that losses from an embarrassing trading misstep had grown to $4.4 billion, more than double its original estimate of $2 billion.
The nation's largest bank also said that it would be forced to restate first-quarter earnings, lowering net income by $459 million, after discovering new information that "raises questions about the integrity" of values placed on some of its trades.
Wall Street appeared to consider the new revelations as providing more clarity, sending the shares of major banks higher in premarket trading along with U.S. futures.
Dow Jones industrial average futures added 40 points to 12,542. Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 4 points to 1,333.20 and Nasdaq futures gained 10.25 points to 2,548.
Futures were already ticking higher after China released statistics that showed economic growth, while slowing, was in line with expectations.
China's gross domestic product expanded 7.6 percent in the April to June period from the same period a year earlier, down from 8.1 percent growth in the first quarter.
Markets overseas had been selling off for days under a growing consensus that the situation in China would be worse than most economists were expecting.
On Friday, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent at 5,633.02. France's CAC-40 gained 0.2 percent to 3,140.46, while Germany's DAX advanced 0.5 percent to 6,449.15.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index was up 0.1 percent to 8,724.11 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4 percent at 19,094.40.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted net income of $5 billion, or $1.21 per share, for the second quarter, easily topping Wall Street expectations, though down from a year ago. It also beat on revenue.
Wells Fargo, the other bank major reporting second quarter results, said that net income rose 18 percent to $4.4 billion.
The Labor Department also reported that inflation remained mild despite higher food costs.
Producer price index increased 0.1 percent in June, after a steep drop of 1 percent in May. In the past 12 months, wholesale prices have risen 0.7 percent, the same as in May.
