U.S. futures hold steady ahead of economic reports; Dow Jones up 0.06%

U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady open on Friday, amid sustained expectations for an early U.S. rate hike and as investors awaited the release of U.S. economic reports later in the day.

U.S. markets have been jittery amid expectations for an early hike in U.S. interest rates, despite data on Thursday showing that U.S. jobless claims rose more than expected last week.Ahead of the open, the Dow 30 futures pointed to a 0.06% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.06% rise, while the NASDAQ 100 futures indicated an 0.05% uptick.

A study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve published on Monday indicated that central bank officials see rates rising sooner than markets expect.

The Fed was expected to cut its asset purchase program by another $10 billion at its upcoming policy meeting next week which would keep it on track for winding up the program in October, and to start raising interest rates sometime in mid-2015.

The telecom sector was expected to be in active, as a group of state attorneys general was reportedly examining whether AT&T (NYSE:T)'s proposed takeover of satellite-television provider DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) violates antitrust laws.

Among tech stocks, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) edged up 0.16% in late trading after saying it plans to buy cloud-computing software developer Eucalyptus Systems in a move to boost the computer maker's businesses.

Also in M&A news, Alliance Data Systems (NYSE:ADS) surged 2.42% after it agreed to buy Conversant Inc (NASDAQ:CNVR) for $2.3 billion, gaining technology to distribute advertising across the Internet and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Elsewhere, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) was likely to move after the e-commerce company announced that it will start showing ads on its smartphone application almost two years after retreating from the mobile advertising market.

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were mixed. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 added 0.18%, France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.01%, Germany's DAX fell 0.20%, while Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.27%.

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.27%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.25%.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on retail sales, as well as closely watched preliminary data on consumer sentiment.