Wall St. still wary

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stock futures pared losses early Friday on the heels of a better-than-expected initial reading of second-quarter economic growth.

Both S&P and Nasdaq futures cut losses following the Commerce Department's report on gross domestic product growth.

The government said the nation's economic growth picked up in the second quarter, at an annual rate of 3.4 percent.

That's up from a revised 0.6 percent growth rate in the final reading of first-quarter growth.

Friday's economic could provide some much-needed relief on Wall Street after Thursday's selloff that saw the Dow plunge 2.3 percent in its biggest loss since February.

The triple-digit loss also pummeled stocks overseas as Asian markets finished the Friday session sharply lower.

In Europe, stocks briefly rebounded in midday trading from early losses, then turned slightly lower again.

Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co., said that there was no news to cause the futures to sink, and he attributed it to general nervousness after Thursday's sharp drop.

"You could make the argument that 50 more people showed up for work saw where they were trading and disagreed," he said. "It's extremely risky to make bets on what will happen in the market today. I would argue in the near term that we oversold the market yesterday, but according to my calendar it is a summer Friday and that means lower volumes, more volatility."

Investors around the world have been rattled by signs that tougher conditions in the credit market are bringing an end to the buyout boom. The take-private spree has helped lift stock prices and driven deal activity.

Tighter credit could also raise the borrowing cost for companies, which would pressure corporate earnings.

On the earnings front, Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500) reported improved quarterly earnings and its shares rose in premarket trading.

On Thursday, No. 1 U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil posted improved per-share earnings that fell short of forecasts, helping to feed the drop in the Dow.

The European Union's top antitrust regulator charged Friday that Intel (Charts, Fortune 500) tried to use its huge market share to push smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices (Charts, Fortune 500) out of the central processing unit (CPU) business.

Shares of Dow component Intel still gained 0.9 percent in early trading in Frankfurt, while AMD gained 1.1 percent.

Google (Charts, Fortune 500) signed a deal with Sprint Nextel (Charts, Fortune 500) to build services to run on Sprint's planned WiMAX high-speed wireless network, which represents Google's closest alliance with a major U.S. mobile service provider.

After the close Thursday, leading biotech Amgen (Charts, Fortune 500) reported a better-than- expected gain in earnings excluding special items, helping to lift its shares 2 percent in after-hours trading, and were up 1.3 percent in Frankfurt early Friday.

Treasuries were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year note holding at 4.78 percent after a large surge Thursday fed by the selloff in stocks. The dollar was higher against the euro and the yen.

Oil prices rose in early trading, as U.S. light crude gained 35 cents to $75.30 a barrel in electronic trading.