Tech stocks boost futures ahead of private payrolls data

[September 02, 2020] By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - S&P 500 futures rose on Wednesday for the ninth time in past ten sessions helped by a rally in tech stocks, as focus turns to economic data that is likely to show a jump in private jobs in August.

The ADP National Employment report is expected to show private payrolls increased by 950,000 last month after a disappointing 167,000 rise in July. The report follows encouraging manufacturing sector surveys on Tuesday.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, signs that the recovery in the labor market was faltering has been a worry for investors. The more comprehensive monthly jobs report is slated for Friday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's move to revamp its policy framework to support the economy back to full employment has fueled a Wall Street rally, and sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new closing highs.

The Dow is about 3% below its all-time high hit on Feb. 12.

High-flying shares of technology companies, seen as resilient to the hit from the coronavirus outbreak, including Apple Inc <AAPL.O>, Amazon.com <AMZN.O>, Facebook Inc <FB.O>, Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> and Slack Technologies Inc <WORK.N> rose between 1.3% and 2.4% in high volumes premarket.

At 6:05 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 218 points, or 0.76%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were up 27.5 points, or 0.78% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 140 points, or 1.14%.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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