Apart from weakness from the political panorama stateside, the euro continued to be boosted against the greenback after European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi hinted on Thursday that the euro zone monetary authority could begin discussions on tapering stimulus in the fall.

EUR/USD reached 1.1677 on Friday its highest level since August 2015 as markets took Draghi’s comments to mean that the ECB was slowly shifting towards taking a less dovish stance and beginning to consider a removal of policy accommodation.

Markets prepared on Friday to price in some large moves in stocks from big name companies that reported after the prior day’s close.

Shares in Microsoft were up around 1.5% in pre-market trade as the computer giant produced late Thursday better-than-expected quarterly profit thanks to its fast growing cloud business.

Visa was also expected to see gains of around 1% as the blue-chip credit card company lifted its earnings forecast after beating profit estimates.

On the downside, eBay showed losses of 4% in pre-market trade Friday as its numbers came out largely in line with expectations and its guidance failed to impress.

Investors will also focus Friday on reports from General Electric or Moody’s scheduled for release before the opening bell even as markets brace for the following week, the busiest in the second quarter reporting season.

Investors were keeping an eye on continuing investigations into allegations that Russia meddled with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly expanding his investigations into possible money laundering by Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that he colluded with Russia, while The Wall Street Journal reported that Mueller may expand the investigation into the President’s private business.

The report came one day after Trump stated that investigating his personal finances would be crossing a red line. The recent reports kept continuous downward pressure on the dollar as market players fretted over how the investigations would sidetrack the implementation of Trump’s fiscal and economic policies.

After the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both hit intraday records in the prior session, U.S. futures showed caution as investors would focus on reactions to earnings in a day with no major economic reports.

European shares saw mixed trade on Friday as corporate earnings were insufficient to counteract the somber mood of the previous session when a stronger euro weighed heavily on exporters.

Earlier, Asian equity markets were down across the board Friday, taking a breather from recent climbs. Japan’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite ended around 0.2% lower.

Oil prices moved higher on Friday, with U.S. crude on track for weekly gains of 1%, as investors looked ahead to further data on U.S. drilling activity later in the session and waited for a gathering of oil producers at the beginning of next week.

The Joint OPEC/Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), whose task is to monitor compliance with agreement to cut production, will likely not produce any official statements to change the current state of play in attempts to reduce the global supply glut when it gathers on Monday.

However, markets will pay close attention to any comments on the sidelines of the meeting amid speculation that Saudi Arabia is considering additional cuts in output while Libya and Nigeria may lose their exemption from the accord between major oil producers to cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day through March 2018.

Market participants will also eye the latest weekly data from Baker Hughes on U.S. drilling activity out later in the session.