LDN - Business

Futures gain ahead of big bank earnings

[October 09, 2017] By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday, stock index futures showed, as investors turned their focus to earnings from big banks later in the week.

* Weak jobs numbers halted an eight-day winning streak for the S&P 500 on Friday but the Nasdaq ended up for a ninth straight day.

* European stock markets were broadly higher, helped by an easing of concern over calls for independence of Spain's prosperous northern region Catalonia. Tokyo also gained around 0.3 percent.

* Chalking up employment losses last month to the temporary hit of a severe hurricane season and reiterating expectations that inflation will strengthen, Federal Reserve policymakers on Friday signaled they still expected U.S. interest-rates to rise gradually.

* Traders now see an 86.7 percent chance of a rate hike in December, according to CME Group's Fedwatch tool.

* Progress made in terms of tax overhaul, with Congress moving closer to agreement on a budget resolution, have also helped stocks.

* Two of the biggest U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase <JPM.N> and Citi <C.N> kick off the quarterly results season proper on Thursday.

* Earnings are expected to have increased 4.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. That would be down from double-digit growth in the first two quarters of this year.

* Investors looked largely to be shrugging off the latest exchange of views between Washington and North Korea.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

* North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un said his nuclear weapons were a "powerful deterrent" that guaranteed its sovereignty, state media reported on Sunday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said "only one thing will work" in dealing with the isolated country.

* Among stocks, Tesla <TSLA.O> shares were down 1.31 percent in premarket hours after Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company had pushed back the unveiling of the big rig truck until mid-November.

* Viacom <VIAB.O> slipped 2.39 percent after Citigroup downgraded the media company's stock to "sell" and slashed its price target by $9 to $24.

* Medtronic <MDT.N> fell 1.8 percent after the medical device maker said its second quarter 2018 earnings would take a hit due to hurricane Maria.

Futures snapshot at 6:56 a.m. ET (1056 GMT):

* Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 39 points, or 0.17 percent, with 12,627 contracts changing hands.

* S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 4 points, or 0.16 percent, with 78,532 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 11.75 points, or 0.19 percent, on volume of 14,954 contracts.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham)

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