Futures climb on stimulus hopes, Nvidia results

[August 16, 2019]  By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose 1% on Friday, as hopes of more stimulus from central banks helped lift some gloom in what has been a turbulent week for markets.

The three main Wall Street indexes are on track for their third week of decline, after the inversion of a U.S. yield curve on Wednesday pointed to a looming recession. [US/]

China said overnight that it was planning to roll out stimulus to stymie an economic slowdown. Investors were also looking forward to interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank next month to fight softening economic growth.

Among stocks, Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> jumped 6% in premarket trading after posting better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue.

Other semiconductor stocks, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc <AMD.O>, Micron Technology Inc <MU.O>, Intel Corp <INTC.O>, were up between 1.5% and 3.2%.

At 7:02 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 251 points, or 0.98%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were up 28.5 points, or 1% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 96.75 points, or 1.29%.

Upbeat U.S. retail sales data on Thursday overshadowed conflicting signals on trade. President Donald Trump said both sides were holding "productive" trade talks even as Beijing vowed to take necessary counter-measures to the latest round of tariffs on Chinese goods.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., August 14, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

The drawn-out trade war between the world's largest economies and fears about its fallout on global growth have led to a more than 4% drop in the three main indexes this month.

Interest-rate sensitive lenders, including Bank of America Corp <BAC.N>, Citigroup Inc <C.N>, JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N>, and Morgan Stanley <MS.N>, rose above 1% as U.S. Treasury bond yields eased off their lows. [US/]

The so-called FAANG group - which includes Facebook Inc <FB.O>, Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O>, Apple <AAPL.O>, Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> and Google-parent Alphabet Inc <GOOGL.O> - gained between 1.2% and 1.6%.

Deere & Co <DE.N> shares fell 2.8% as the farm equipment maker cut its full-year profit and sales growth forecasts.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru)

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