Futures bounce as China industrial profits rise

[September 28, 2020]  By Devik Jain

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday as hopes of a global economic recovery were supported by data showing continued growth in China's industrial profits, while beaten down shares of banking and travel firms bounced.

Shares of American Airlines Group Inc, United Airlines, cruise operators Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Carnival Corp rose between 2.5% and 5.6% in premarket trading.

American Airlines Group Inc said it has secured a $5.5 billion Treasury loan and could tap up to $2 billion more in October depending on the allocation of extra funds under a $25 billion loan package for airlines.

Optimism spilled over from Asian trading hours after data over the weekend showed profits at China's industrial firms grew for the fourth straight month in August.
 

Wall Street's main indexes ended higher on Friday, helped by technology stocks, but the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 indexes posted their longest weekly losing streaks in a year on fears of a slowing pace of economic growth.

Worries over rising coronavirus cases and waning hopes of more fiscal stimulus have led to a spike in market volatility in the past few weeks, and analysts expect trading to remain choppy in the run up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, spiked to its highest in nearly two weeks last Monday, with analysts warning of further upside to the index heading toward the end of the quarter.

A nearly empty trading floor is seen as preparations are made for the return to trading at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 22, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Shares of technology-related stocks including Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Netflix Inc, perceived as relatively safe assets at a time of economic uncertainty, rose between 1.1% and 2.2%.

At 6:39 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 357 points, or 1.32%. S&P 500 e-minis were up 43.75 points, or 1.33% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 190 points, or 1.71%.

U.S. big banks JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co and Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc added between 0.8% and 2%.

Boeing shares rose 2.5% after the FAA Chief Steve Dickson said the agency is set to conduct a 737 MAX evaluation flight this week, a key milestone as the planemaker aims for approval to resume flight.

Shares of chip gear makers Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc, and KLA Corp fell more than 1.5% as the United States imposed curbs on exports to China's biggest chip maker SMIC, citing risk of military use.

(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.