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Futures off session lows; Street eyes oil, options expiration

Spencer Platt | Getty Images. U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Monday as traders awaited the release of economic data and eyed earnings.

U.S. stock index futures indicated a lower open on Friday as traders eyed oil prices and looked to the final quadruple witching Friday of the year.

Dow futures attempted slight gains after briefly falling 100 points, but still pointed to a lower open. Sector ETFs for energy, financials and utilities were all temporarily more than 1 percent lower in pre-market trade.

Oil attempted to stabilize and trade higher, while holding near seven-year lows.

Quadruple "witching" expiration is the quarterly expiration of stock and index options and stock and index futures, and stocks could trade with both high volatility and high volume on Friday.

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Friday "is going to be a day in of itself because it's a big options expiration day," Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth, said as selling accelerated into the close Thursday.

U.S. stocks closed near session lows Thursday, breaking a three-day win streak with losses of more than 1 percent each as investors eyed oil prices and economic data, after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday made the widely expected move of raising rates.

In Asia the Shanghai Composite (Shanghai Stock Exchange: .SSEC) closed flat, while Japan's Nikkei (Nihon Kenzai Shinbun: .N225) finished 1.9 percent lower. In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 (^STOXX) index edged lower on Friday morning.

On the data front, the Markit Services PMI is due at 9:45 a.m. ET.

On the earnings front, CarMax (KMX), Carnival (CCL), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Lennar (LEN) and BlackBerry (Toronto Stock Exchange: BB-CA) were among those due to report before the bell.

Read More Early movers: LEN, BBRY, DRI, KMX, GE, UA, BMY, PG, YHOO, AMZN & more

— CNBC's Patti Domm contributed to this report



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