US stocks struggle after yesterday's powerful rally

Major US equity indices took a breather after previous session's powerful rally and witnessed a rather lacklustre opening on the last trading day of the week. 

The recent recovery in the Turkish Lira ran out of steam on Friday, with a sharp slide of over 5% against the buck overshadowing overnight optimism led by news that the US and China would hold fresh trade talks later this month.

With concerns surrounding the recent crisis in Turkey acting as a key driver of the markets, investors are also monitoring the final results from the second-quarter earnings season. Below estimate results from the world's largest supplier of chip equipment - Applied Materials fueled fears that a two-year chip boom might have ended and weighed on the technology sector. 

At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broader S&P 500 Index treaded water near yesterday's closing levels, around 25,560 and 2,840 respectively. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index underperformed the broader markets and slipped back below the 7,800 round figure mark.