U.S., Oct. 11 -- After ending the previous session modestly lower, stocks may show a lack of direction in early trading on Friday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by less than a tenth of a percent.
The futures remained little changed after the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices in the U.S. were unexpectedly unchanged in September.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand came in flat in September after rising by 0.2 percent in August. Economists had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent.
The report also said the annual rate of growth by producer prices slowed to 1.8 percent in September from a...