U.S. futures higher a day after Nasdaq set record high

[June 19, 2015]  By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher on Friday, a day after the Nasdaq Composite index broke its last standing milestone from the dot-com era as it set a record intraday high.

* Wall Street was boosted by Thursday's strong data, which pointed to signs that the U.S. economy was recovering after growth came to a halt earlier in the year.

* U.S. consumer prices last month increased the most in more than two years, jobless claims applications last week fell to a near 15-year low and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region in June accelerated to a six-month high.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve's perceived dovishness regarding the pace of a rate hike also continued to boost equities.

* Investors may see a spike in volume and volatility at the open and towards the closing bell as Friday marks a "quadruple witching" day - the expiration of stock options, index options, index futures and single-stock futures - as traders close hedging positions or roll them over at the last minute.

* The Greece crisis also showed no signs of receding. Euro zone leaders will hold an emergency summit on Monday to try to avert a Greek default after bank withdrawals accelerated and government revenue slumped as the debt talks drag on.

* San Francisco Fed president John Williams is due to speak before the National Bureau of Economic Research East Asian Seminar on Economics in San Francisco, while Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester is scheduled to speak before the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Philadelphia Policy Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

* ConAgra Foods' shares were up 6 percent at $41.47 in premarket trading after activist hedge fund Jana Partners took a stake in the company.

* Amgen inched up 0.3 percent at $160.67 after it said its drug met the main goal of improving overall survival in metastatic colorectal cancer patients who have not responded to chemotherapy.

Futures snapshot at 7:23 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 2.5 points, or 0.12 percent, with 111,385 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 6.75 points, or 0.15 percent, on volume of 10,689 contracts.

* Dow e-minis  were up 37 points, or 0.2 percent, with 673 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Don Sebastian)

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