Futures rise on fading chances of rate hike this year

[October 05, 2015] By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday, after Friday's tepid U.S. jobs data raised fresh doubts if the economy was strong enough to absorb an interest rate increase this year.

* Global stock markets rose on Monday as investors expect the era of easy monetary policy to continue further.

* Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for September showed job growth slowed in the last three months and economists said the Federal Reserve was now unlikely to raise rates this year.

* However, Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, told Reuters he still expects the Fed to raise rates this year despite the "weak" jobs report.

* The U.S. stock market fell on Friday after the September report, before staging a turnaround led by energy stocks in a volatile session.

* The market has been volatile as investors try and gauge when the Fed will raise rates amid lingering concerns about global growth and its effect on U.S. economic policy and corporate results.
 

* With the third-quarter earnings season starting this week, investors are also starting to factor in what is likely to be the biggest fall in profits for S&P 500 companies in six years.

* Wall Street expects S&P 500 companies to report a 4.2 percent decline in profits, according to Thomson Reuters data.

* Crude oil prices rose more than 1 percent on Monday after Russia said it was prepared to discuss the market with other producers.

* Shares of Dow components Exxon and Chevron were up about 1 percent premarket.

* GE rose nearly 4 percent to $26.49 after Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management disclosed a roughly 1 percent stake in the company.

* Spark Therapeutics soared 68 percent to $73.98 after the company said its experimental eye drug was successful in a late-stage study.

* Data due on Monday is expected to show the Institute of Supply Management's non-manufacturing PMI index dropped to 57.7 in September from 59.0 in August. The data is due at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT).

Futures snapshot at 7:16 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 14 points, or 0.72 percent, with 181,478 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 33.5 points, or 0.79 percent, on volume of 31,604 contracts.

* Dow e-minis were up 112 points, or 0.68 percent, with 24,457 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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