Wall Street stocks were poised to open slightly lower Friday as worries about the financial health of Deutsche Bank AG persisted and unsettled overseas markets.
But stocks appeared to be in for a calmer session with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures industrials futures off just 17 points to 18,080, while S&P 500 index futures slipped 1 point to 2,147.2. Nasdaq-100 index futures futures dropped 6.75 points to 4,838.25.
The Dow industrials closed nearly 200 points lower on Thursday after a report that some of the lender's biggest clients were pulling their investments. Wall Street's CBOE Volatility index , or "fear gauge," jumped the most in three weeks at one point in that session.
The S&P 500 index dropped nearly 1% on Thursday, with all sectors finishing in the red. Friday marks the end of the week, month and quarter, and the S&P 500 is down 0.6%, down 1%, and up 2.5%, respectively, with one session left to go.
Shares of Deutsche Bank (DBK.XE) briefly fell to their lowest level on record in Frankfurt on Friday, triggering sharp losses across European stock indexes. The German bank's U.S.-listed shares (DBK.XE) were up 1% in premarket trading, after closing 6.7% lower on Thursday.
The shares trimmed losses as reports emerged of a letter sent to Deutsche Bank employees by the lender's chief executive, John Cryan. The banking boss said recent media speculation that a group of hedge funds were reducing their exposure to the financial major was "causing unjustified concerns" and that the bank has "strong fundamentals".
European banks cast a shadow: Friday marked the first opportunity for European markets to react to the Deutsche Bank news. At one point, the German lender's shares dropped below 10 euros and traded at a record low.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 1%, as banks across the region took a battering. Spain's IBEX 35 index was down nearly 2%.
"While we do not rule out the possibility of a renewed tension in the financial markets, the amplitude of such scenario is hard to price in," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at LGC.com, in a note to clients.
"We are already in a low-rate, post-crisis environment as the result of the 2007-2008 subprime crisis. The financial markets are certainly not well armored to face another financial crisis," Ozkardeskaya said.