Futures rise ahead of earnings rush

[July 18, 2016]  By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher on Monday, coming off a record-setting week for Wall Street that followed robust economic data and strong earnings.

* Equity futures had dipped after the close on Friday, but have since shrugged off the impact of an attempted coup in Turkey.

* The U.S. stock market will be tested this week, when the onslaught of company earnings could help investors assess evidence of a second-half profit rebound.

* Bank of America,  the No.2 U.S. bank by assets, reported quarterly earnings that fell, but beat analysts expectations. The bank's shares rose 0.3 percent to $13.70 in premarket trading.

* After similar market-beating results from some companies last week, earnings of S&P 500 companies are now estimated to have declined 4.7 percent in the second quarter, less than the 5 percent drop estimated earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data

* That adds to hopes that earnings contraction bottomed out in the previous quarter, a view that could be reinforced when IBM, Yahoo and Netflix report results after markets close.

* Gold prices have fallen, while the yen was lower, indicating investors' favor for more riskier assets has been growing after weeks of uncertainty.

* The S&P 500 and the Dow were just 0.2 percent shy of record intraday highs at the close on Friday.

* British chip designer ARM's U.S.-listed shares surged 43 percent to $67.30 premarket, after Japan's SoftBank agreed to buy the company for $32.2 billion.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 14, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Futures snapshot at 6:55 a.m. ET:

* Dow e-minis were up 24 points, or 0.13 percent, with 25,696 contracts changing hands.

* S&P 500 e-minis  were up 4 points, or 0.19 percent, with 151,614 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 4.5 points, or 0.1 percent, on volume of 22,912 contracts.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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