Stock futures higher as beaten down tech stocks rebound

[June 19, 2017]  By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Monday with investors snapping up beaten down technology and retail stocks.

The S&P technology sector  is coming off its second straight week of declines, triggered mainly due to stretched valuations and investors moving money to other sectors. Tech stocks have led the S&P 500's 8.7 percent rally this year.

Leading the rebound, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet were all up between 0.8 percent and 1 percent in premarket trading.

Retail stocks were battered on Friday after Amazon.com's $13.7 billion deal to buy upscale grocer Whole Foods.

The deal by Amazon, a proven retail disruptor, marked a major step by the internet retailer into the brick-and-mortar retail sector.

Amazon was up 0.94 percent, while Wal-Mart, Target and Kroger gained between 0.4 percent and 1.1 percent on Monday.

The market is awaiting comments by New York Fed President William Dudley, a close ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen, when he speaks at a business roundtable at 7:45 a.m. ET (1145 GMT).

Yellen's confidence as her team raised interest rates for the third time in six months last week surprised investors who had expected more caution about the economy following a batch of weak U.S. economic data.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Last month, the U.S. economy added 138,000 jobs, well below the expected gain of 185,000, while other data showed a fall in retail sales and inflation below the Fed's target of 2 percent.

European stocks were headed for their biggest rise in two months, helped by a meaty parliamentary majority for pro-business French President Emmanuel Macron.

Oil prices edged higher, after coming under pressure over the past month from rising production. [O/R]

Clovis Oncology <CLVS.O> soared 41.8 percent to $85 after the biotechnology company's ovarian cancer drug was set for a label expansion.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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