LDN - Business

Apple powers futures, Dow set to hit 22,000 mark

[August 02, 2017] By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday with a rally in Apple's shares lifting the technology sector and setting the Dow industrials on course to breach the 22,000 mark.

* Apple jumped 5.68 percent in premarket trading, a day after the world's largest publicly listed company reported better-than-expected results and iPhone sales, and signaled its upcoming 10th-anniversary phone is on schedule. The stock is up about 30 percent this year.

* The S&P 500 information technology index <.SPLRCT> is up 22 percent year to date, leading other sectors, as investors look for growth in an otherwise low-growth environment.

* The Dow has risen 11 percent in 2017, even as Wall Street is losing confidence that President Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress will be able to cut taxes and increase infrastructure spending this year.

* The Dow hit the 20,000 mark in late January and crossed the 21,000 mark in just over a month on March 1, helped by a rise in banks Goldman Sachs <GS.N> and JPMorgan <JPM.N>.

* Two-thirds of S&P 500 companies have reported their second-quarter earnings so far and 72 percent of them have beaten Wall Street's expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. In a typical quarter, 64 percent of companies beat expectations.

* The results may reassure investors worried about high valuations. The S&P 500 is trading at about 18 times earnings estimates for the next 12 months, above its 10-year average of 14 times, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

* Tesla, Fitbit and AIG are among the major companies scheduled to report results after the closing bell.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

* The ADP data at 8:15 a.m. ET (1215 GMT), is expected to show U.S. private employers added 185,000 jobs in July, after adding 158,000 jobs in June. The data comes ahead of the more comprehensive non-farm payrolls data on Friday.

* San Francisco Fed President John Williams and Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester are also scheduled to make appearances later in the day.

* Match Group fell 6.03 percent after the dating website operator's quarterly profit came in below expectations.

* Garmin rose 5.22 percent as the maker of GPS-based gadgets, reported a rise in quarterly profit.

* FireEye was up 6.74 percent after the internet security company's revenue came in above expectations.

* Time Warner Inc was marginally up, after the company reported a better-than-expected 11.6 percent jump in quarterly profit.

Futures snapshot at 7:09 a.m. ET:

* Dow e-minis were up 36 points, or 0.16 percent, with 14,539 contracts changing hands.

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.75 points, or 0.03 percent, with 96,912 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 43 points, or 0.73 percent, on volume of 30,475 contracts.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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