Tesla expected to post double-digit declines in earnings, sales. Fed chief Powell speech in focus as central bank independence worries grow. Top tail risks and most crowded trades.

Meanwhile, the odds of a cut coming at the next Fed meeting stand at less than 3%. Put another way, the market gives a 97% chance to the Fed standing pat when it meets in late July.

A healthy crop of earnings helped European stocks bust out of a four-day losing streak on Thursday, Wall Street was watching Netflix and the dollar bounced after U.S. President Donald Trump quashed talk he was about to fire Fed head Jerome Powell.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting on Friday toward the finish of its third winning week in the last four, as more big U.S. companies deliver stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected.

President Trump has filed a lawsuit over a story the Wall Street Journal published about an alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.

Consumers' inflation expectations, by some measures, are also the highest in decades. Inflation has been above the Fed's 2% target for over four years, and the prospect of a dovish Fed under the stewardship of a new Trump-friendly Chair could keep it that way.