Stock futures tick up on earnings, world conflicts eyed

[July 23, 2014]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged up on Wednesday, boosted by bullish earnings from companies like Microsoft and Boeing, though conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip weighed on investor confidence.

Microsoft shares rose 2.4 percent in premarket trading a day after it said it aimed to get its loss-making Nokia phone unit to break even within two years.

Boeing  added 1.2 percent in premarket trading after it reported a 52 percent jump in quarterly profit on higher commercial aircraft deliveries.

Apple shares edged 0.7 percent higher even as it posted a smaller-than-expected 6 percent rise in quarterly revenue Tuesday. Sales surged 28 percent in greater China despite stiff competition in its third-largest market.

S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 3 points and fair value - a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract - indicated a slightly higher open. Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures rose 13 points and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures added 12 points.
 

In a blow to Israel's economy and a public relations coup for Hamas, U.S. and European air carriers halted flights to Tel Aviv, citing concern over a militant rocket from Gaza that hit a house near the city's airport. Israel urged a re-think, saying its air space was safe.

Bells pealed and flags flew at half mast across the Netherlands, on a day of grief tinged with anger, ahead of the arrival of the first bodies of victims from a Malaysian airliner that was shot down over Ukraine last week. Many of the 298 deceased were Dutch.

Separately, pro-Russian rebels have shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets, not far from where the Malaysian jet was brought down in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman for Ukraine's military operations said Wednesday.

Biogen Idec reported sharply higher-than-expected quarterly revenue on surging sales of its new treatment for multiple sclerosis and raised its full-year profit forecast. Shares were up 7 percent in premarket trading.

Intuitive Surgical rose 13 percent in premarket trading, a day after it posted second quarter earnings that were better than its dismal first quarter, even as it posted its fifth straight quarterly earnings decline.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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