Wall Street poised to open lower as energy weighs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open lower on Friday, setting major indexes up for a second month of declines, pressured by the energy sector, with Chevron shares down 1 percent after reporting a 30 percent drop in quarterly earnings.

Futures were further weighed by data showing U.S. gross domestic product grew less than expected in the last quarter of 2014.

The headline number was "well below consensus expectations and that is definitely one of the data points that many bulls were looking for to justify staying bullish," said Peter Kenny, chief market strategist at Clearpool Group in New York.

Still, the data also showed a much higher-than-expected increase in consumer spending.

"The strength in the consumer spending silo of this data is actually longer term very encouraging because we know it is likely to be sustainable," Kenny said.

That strength appeared to be reflected in some corporate results. Amazon shares jumped 12.8 percent in premarket trading a day after posting earnings that beat Wall Street expectations on strong sales during the holiday season.

S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 19 points and fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract, indicated a lower open. Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures <1YMc1> rose 174 points and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures lost 14 points.

Chevron said it plans to spend $35 billion this year on oil and gas projects, 13 percent less than in 2014. The bulk of that amount - $23.4 billion - will be spent on projects outside the United States. Shares fell 1 percent premarket.

Google Inc shares rose 1.3 percent in premarket trading even as revenue growth of 15 percent in the fourth quarter fell short of Wall Street's target.

Visa rose 3.8 percent after it reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and announced a 4-for-1 split of its class A common stock.

Mattel shares fell 1.7 percent after the toy maker reported its fifth straight fall in quarterly sales in North America, a nagging decline that likely cost Brian Stockton his job as chief executive this week.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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