LIVE MARKETS-US stocks on track for solid weekly gains

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U.S. STOCKS ON TRACK FOR SOLID WEEKLY GAINS

The main U.S. indexes are muted early on Friday, though they are on track for their second-straight week of gains, while uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies continues to hang over markets.

Meanwhile, in terms of economic data on Friday, January S&P Global manufacturing flash PMI came in at 50.1 vs a 49.7 estimate. The services read came in at 52.8 vs a 56.5 estimate.

December existing home sales, as well as the final read on January U Mich sentiment are both due at 1000 ET. Existing home sales are expected at 4.19M vs 4.15M last month. U Mich is expected at 73.2 which would be flat with the prior read.

A majority of S&P 500 .SPX sectors are higher with communication services .SPLRCL posting the biggest rise. Healthcare .SPXHC is the weakest group.

Although early in Friday's session, among indexes on track for record closing highs are the S&P 500, the communication services sector, the S&P 500 banks index .SPXBK, and the FANG index .NYFANG.

And as stands, the three main indexes are all on pace for weekly gains of more than 2% each.

Here is a snapshot of where markets stood just after 945 ET:

(Terence Gabriel)

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