Amazon lifts futures, GDP data awaited

[July 27, 2018]   By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday as Amazon's robust earnings buoyed the flagging FAANG group of high-flying stocks and ahead of a potentially strong U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) data.

Shares of Amazon.com <AMZN.O> jumped 4.6 percent in premarket trading, set to hit a record high and reclaim the $900 billion market-cap tag, after forecasting strong sales and posting a profit that was double analysts' estimates.

Other FAANG members also rose. Netflix <NFLX.O> climbed 0.5 percent, while Alphabet's <GOOGL.O> shares were 0.4 percent higher.

Facebook, which lost more than $120 billion in market value and pushed the Nasdaq down over 1 percent on Thursday after a weak forecast, was up 0.9 percent.

Twitter <TWTR.K> tumbled 12.9 percent after its monthly users fell by 1 million to 335 million in the second quarter from the previous three months.

In focus is also second-quarter GDP data, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, which is expected to show the U.S. economy grew at a 4.1 percent annualized rate in the second quarter, following 2.0 percent in the first quarter.

President Donald Trump has been promoting the notion that growth will be robust and earlier this week tweeted that the United States has "the best financial numbers on the planet."

At 7:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 24 points, or 0.09 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 2 points, or 0.07 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 16.75 points, or 0.23 percent.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Intel <INTC.O> dropped 6.6 percent after its fast-growing data center business missed estimates and it delayed the release of its next-generation chips until the end of 2019.

Advanced Micro Devices <AMD.O>, which is expected to have eaten into Intel's market share, was up 3.8 percent.

Merck <MRK.N> rose 0.7 percent after its quarterly profit topped analysts' estimates as sales of its blockbuster cancer drug nearly doubled and the company raised full-year profit outlook.

Earnings of S&P 500 companies is now expected to rise 22.4 percent in the second quarter, compared with an estimate of 20.7 percent as of July 1, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Chesapeake Energy <CHK.N> jumped 10.7 percent after it planned to sell all of its Ohio natural gas acreage to privately owned Encino Acquisition Partners for about $2 billion.

Electronic Arts <EA.O> fell 4.8 percent after the game publisher forecast tepid second-quarter revenue growth.

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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