Futures jump as Yellen eases fears of slowing growth

[September 25, 2015] By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose 1.5 percent on Friday, a day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she expects the central bank to raise interest rates later this year.

* Yellen's comments helped ease fears regarding the growth of the global economy. Markets have been skittish since last week, when Yellen cited concerns about slowing growth as a key reason for holding off from a hike.

* Yellen said on Thursday that she and other policymakers do not expect recent global economic and financial market developments to significantly affect the central bank's policy.

* The dollar rose against a basket of currencies to its highest since August after Yellen's speech.

* Wall Street closed lower on Thursday, after Caterpillar cut its 2015 sales forecast, and healthcare investors sold off for a fifth day in a row.

* Shares of Nike jumped 8.2 percent to $124.25 premarket after the world's largest sportswear maker's quarterly profit outpaced expectations on surprisingly steep growth in China.

* Apple was up 1.1 percent at $116.28 as its new iPhones go on sale globally.

* Intel rose 1.6 percent to $28.93 after JMP Securities upgraded the stock to "market perform".

* U.S.-listed shares of Blackberry were down 6.7 percent at $6.56 after the company reported quarterly results.

* Data due Friday includes the final reading of second-quarter gross domestic product, which is expected to show the United States expanded at 3.7 percent, same as the preliminary reading. The data is expected at 8:30 a.m. (12.30 GMT).

* Separately, consumer sentiment is expected to rise to 86.7 in September, compared with the preliminary reading of 85.7. That data is expected at 10 a.m.

Futures snapshot at 7:14 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 22.25 points, or 1.16 percent, with 292,862 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 45.5 points, or 1.07 percent, on volume of 48,282 contracts.

* Dow e-minis were up 214 points, or 1.33 percent, with 50,941 contracts changing hands.

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

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