By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures signaled modest losses for Wall Street on Friday, with the pullback coming after news of New York's first reported case of Ebola.

Corporate quarterly results, however, remain in focus, as the latest reports are scheduled to come from Procter & Gamble Co. and Ford Motor Co.

Futures, as well as the dollar (DXY), fell overnight following news late Thursday that a New York doctor has contracted the deadly Ebola virus, marking the first such case in the city. Recently heightened concerns about the disease spreading have already put travel-related stocks under pressure. U.S. Treasurys strengthened "as [the] Ebola-scare in New York spurred the safe-haven demand for bonds," drawing the benchmark 10-year yield to around 2.25% compared with Thursday's close of 2.27%, ICICI Bank wrote in a note.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJZ4) were off their lows, but were still down by 43 points, or 0.3%, to 16,576 and those for the S&P 500 index (SPZ4) lost 7 points, or 0.3%, at 1,939.50. Nasdaq 100 futures (NDZ4) slumped 14.25 points, or 0.4%, to 3,991.

Investors may also take a cautious approach Friday ahead of this weekend's release of results from the European Union's stress tests for banks, which are set to be released as investors have been confronting a raft of data showing slowing growth in Europe.

Also around the corner is next week's Federal Reserve policy meeting. The Fed is expected to end its third-round of bond buying, which had been aimed at helping the U.S. economy emerge from the financial crisis in 2008.

"The central question then that traders will be asking (assuming Ebola looks to be contained) will be whether the Fed removes the 'considerable period' for keeping the funds rate low," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, referring to the Fed's policy statement in a Friday note. It's likely the Fed will "continue to see rates staying low for a considerable period of time and remain confident in its economic outlook, thus sending a message of confidence to the market," Weston wrote.

Wall Street's equity benchmarks were on pace to rise between 1.8% and 4.6% for the week, which would break a four-week losing streak.

Strong results from Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and 3M Co. (MMM) on Thursday fueled a 217-point leap for the Dow Jones Industrial Average(DJI). The S&P 500 (SPX) jumped 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) bounced higher by 1.6%.

Data: A report on sales of new single-family homes for September from the Commerce Department are due at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Sales on a seasonally adjusted annual rate may come in at 455,000.

Earnings: Before the opening bell, Procter & Gamble (PG) shares climbed 2% after the consumer-goods heavyweight said it plans to get out of its Duracell battery business. Also, quarterly-adjusted earnings of $1.07 a share met analyst expectations.

Ford's (F) third-quarter profit fell to $835 million, and pretax profit fell to $1.18 billion, but the figures beat Wall Street's projection. Shares slipped 0.5% after the report.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s (BMY) adjusted earnings of 45 cents for the third quarter was ahead of Wall Street's estimate by 2 cents a share. The drug maker lowered its full-year 2014 estimate for net earnings per share, but affirmed its adjusted EPS outlook of $1.70 to $1.80. Shares rose 1% in scant volume premarket.

Stocks to watch: Amazon.com (AMZN) dropped 10% in premarket action. Late Thursday, the online retailer reported a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss and projected sales growth that fell below expectations.

Microsoft (MSFT) shares picked up 3.1% ahead of the bell after the company posted fiscal first-quarter earnings of 54 cents a share on revenue of $23.2 billion. Analysts expected 49 cents a share on revenue of $22.01 billion.

Shares of haz-mat maker Lakeland Industries Inc. (LAKE) jumped 20% in the wake of the new Ebola case in New York.

Other markets: In Asia, the Nikkei Stock Average rose 1% but Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.1%. European stocks moved lower. Gold futures (GCZ4) were slightly higher, but oil futures (CLZ4) lost ground.

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