Nasdaq futures rise on strong earnings from Amazon, Microsoft

[April 27, 2018]   By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Nasdaq futures rose on Friday, after stellar results from Amazon, Microsoft and Intel, while other stock index futures were subdued ahead of first-quarter U.S. GDP data.

At 7:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were down 80 points, or 0.33 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were down 3.25 points, or 0.12 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 16.75 points, or 0.25 percent.

Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> surged 7.4 percent in premarket trading after the world's largest online retailer more than doubled its profit and said it expects strong spring results.

Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> rose 3.9 percent after topping Wall Street forecasts for profit, while Intel <INTC.O> gained 5.7 percent as strength in its data center business drove a profit beat.

The results come a day after Facebook <FB.O> closed up 9.1 percent after posting an impressive earnings beat, which calmed worries about the fallout from its use of consumer data, and led to a rebound in technology stocks.

Nearly half of the S&P 500 firms reported first-quarter earnings through Thursday, and 79.7 percent have topped profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. The latest estimate for earnings growth was 23.1 percent, up from about 18 percent since the start of season.

A tug-of-war between strong earnings and concerns about inflation and interest rates have made the markets more volatile.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield retreated further from the 3 percent level on Friday, ahead of first-quarter GDP data due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Trader Peter Tuchman is pictured working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 20, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The numbers are expected to show U.S. economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 2 percent, from 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, as growth in consumer spending braked sharply.

First-quarter numbers tend to be soft because of a seasonal quirk and Fed officials are likely to shrug off the weak data.

Sprint <S.N> surged more than 7 percent after Reuters reported, citing sources, the company and fellow wireless carrier T-Mobile <TMUS.O> have made progress in negotiating merger terms and are aiming to successfully complete deal talks as early as next week.

Among decliners, Starbucks Corp <SBUX.O> fell 1.82 percent after it reported stagnant store traffic at established U.S. cafes.

Colgate-Palmolive <CL.N> dropped 4 percent after the company's quarterly sales just met analysts' estimates as demand in emerging markets was below its expectations.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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