1. Investors hope for healthcare reform

Market players kept their attention focused on Washington Friday with the House of Representatives expected to vote on the healthcare plan, after U.S. President Donald Trump failed to get enough support to pass the bill and the vote originally scheduled for Thursday was delayed.

Reports said that Trump was done with negotiations and had told the House that they must vote on the bill or be left with Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Investors widely see the Trump administration's struggles to push through the healthcare overhaul as a sign he may also face setbacks delivering on the promises for tax cuts, regulatory reform and infrastructure spending.

Strategists have been cautioning for weeks that markets are pricing in a scenario where nothing goes wrong with Trump's agenda.

2. Fed focus turns to balance sheet

After the Federal Reserve (Fed) raised interest rates on Wednesday last week, but stuck to its outlook for two more hikes this year, instead of three expected by the market, markets player have increasingly begun to focus attention on the central bank’s plans to normalize its balance sheet.

Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan said after the market close Thursday that policymakers should be moving “deliberately but patiently” towards the removal of accommodation. While also noting that three hikes remained a reasonable baseline for this year, Kaplan insisted on the importance of the Fed announcing its plans for reducing the balance sheet.

“We’re approaching a period where we’ll have made some further progress and we’ll be able to make an announcement on our plans for the balance sheet,” he said, adding that he would argue for allowing both Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to run off.

Kaplan’s remarks followed comments from Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari that he would like to publish the plan for the balance sheet reduction “as soon as possible”.

Friday’s session will see a slew of appearances throughout the day, including Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans, SF Fed president John Williams, head of the St. Louis Fed James Bullard and NY Fed chief William Dudley.

3. Economics

On Friday’s data front, investors will focus on durable goods orders for February with expectations for a 1.2% increase in what would be a second sign of upbeat company sentiment for the start of 2017.

Investors will also check out private sector business activity with the release of IHS Markit’s preliminary purchasing managers’ index for March covering both the manufacturing and service sectors.

The reports will offer a preliminary view of business activity ahead of April’s more widely followed publication from the Institute for Supply Management.

Oil prices recovered some lost territory on Friday, but was still on track for weekly losses of nearly 3% in what would be its third consecutive weekly decline as investors showed concern over record U.S. crude stockpiles and waited for the technical committee meeting this weekend that will analyze compliance by major oil producers on agreed production cuts and where ministers were expected to discuss the possibility of an extension of the deal from June.

4. Euro zone strong data

Ahead of the U.S. data, business growth in the euro zone jumped to nearly a six-year high, according to a survey released Friday by IHS Markit.

In the survey, the market research group Markit said that its flash Euro Zone Composite Output Index, which measures the combined output of both the manufacturing and service sectors, increased to 56.7 in March, from the prior month’s reading of 56.0 and above forecasts a drop to 55.8. That was its highest reading since April 2011.

"There is a nice broad-based strengthening of the euro zone economy, this is a really solid rate of expansion,” IHS Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said.

“It's an economy firing on all cylinders," he added.