Stock futures recover from tax bill concerns

[December 15, 2017]   

By Rama Venkat Raman

(Reuters) - U.S. stock markets were set to open higher on Friday, recovering from a bout of uncertainty surrounding the passage of the Republicans' much-awaited tax overhaul bill.

- The benchmark S&P 500 fell the most in a month on Thursday after Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee said they would not back the bill without changes to child tax credits, joining a list of lawmakers whose support is uncertain.

- Stock market has rallied this year, partly on hopes of corporate tax cuts that President Donald Trump promised during his election campaign.

- At 7:01 a.m. ET (1201 GMT), Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 69 points, or 0.28 percent, with 1,577 contracts changing hands. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 5.5 points, or 0.21 percent, with 17,746 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 16 points, or 0.25 percent, on volume of 1,979 contracts.

- Bitcoin hit a new high of $17,751 on Bitstamp exchange in the day, boosting shares of related stocks including Riot Blockchain <RIOT.O>, Overstock.com <OSTK.O>, Xunlei <XNET.O>, which were between 1.43 percent and 4.72 percent in early premarket trading.

- Shares of Oracle <ORCL.N> fell 6.85 percent after the company's forecast for the current-quarter cloud revenue growth missed estimates and the second quarter sales in the business disappointed.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 14, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

- CSX Corp shares fell 5.25 percent after the No.3 U.S. railroad said its Chief Executive Hunter Harrison was taking medical leave, a decision that comes in the middle of a controversial turnaround plan.

- Costco Wholesale <COST.O> shares rose 2.16 percent after the company's quarterly profit and revenue beat analysts' estimates. - Oil prices were higher on Friday, lifted by the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea and ongoing OPEC-led production cuts, although rising output from the United States kept a lid on markets. [O/R]

- The Federal Reserve's report on industrial production is likely to show a gain of 0.3 percent in November, after surging 0.9 percent the prior month. The report is due at 9:15 a.m. ET.

(Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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