By James Willhite

Here's what we're watching ahead of Friday's opening bell.

-- U.S. stock futures edged lower as some investors grew concerned that President-elect Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan could lead to higher taxes.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.4%, putting the benchmark on course to decline for a second day. Contracts tied to the Nasdaq-100 edged less than 0.2% lower and those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4%. Read our full market wrap here.

What's Coming Up

-- Corporate earnings season kicks into high gear with updates due before the bell from Citigroup and Wells Fargo.

Retail sales for December are due at 8:30 a.m. ET, and a preliminary reading of consumer sentiment is due at 10 a.m. Both are expected to register small drops.

Market Movers to Watch

-- JPMorgan shares wavered near the flatline premarket after it became the first of the big U.S. banks to deliver results for the recent quarter.

-- Shares of Blackberry jumped more than 20% premarket. The rise comes after the maker of the eponymous device from technology days of yore, now a security software and services company, saw its stock climb more than 20% on Thursday. Earlier this week Canada's the Globe and Mail reported the company had sold 90 patents to Huawei. No word on whether " Blackberry thumb" is going to become a thing again.

-- Online resale marketplace Poshmark's shares edged down 1.5% premarket, holding on to most of the prior day's gains, when its stock soared more than 140% in its trading debut.

-- Shares of Palantir Technologies are up more than 7% premarket, as investors appear unmoved by yesterday's downgrade of the stock from Citibank.

-- Business-application software firm Progress Software reported higher-than-expected adjusted earnings and revenue for its most recent quarter. Its shares ticked down 0.5% premarket.

Market Fact

Smartphone giant Xiaomi's Hong Kong-listed shares fell almost 14% Friday before closing 10% lower, after the company became the latest Chinese technology group to be targeted by the Trump administration, with its surprise addition to an investment blacklist.

Chart of the Day

The world's fastest Covid-19 vaccination rollout is drawing investors to Israel, making its stock market one of the top performers in 2021.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-15-21 0724ET