Futures rise as tech stocks gain ahead of weekly jobless claims data

[April 01, 2021]  By Devik Jain

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday as technology shares, led by chipmakers, gained following an upbeat earnings outlook by Micron, while investors awaited weekly jobless claims data to gauge the pace of a recovery in the labor market.

Micron Technology Inc rose 4.3% after the chipmaker forecast fiscal third-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates due to higher demand for memory chips, thanks to 5G smartphones and artificial intelligence software.

U.S.-listed shares of rival Taiwan Semiconductor added 2.3% on its plan to invest $100 billion over the next three years to meet the rising chip demand.

Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.9% as "high flying" stocks including Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc and Apple Inc added between 0.6% and 1.1% after underperforming last month on concerns over elevated valuations.

The S&P 500 hit a new intraday high, but stopped short of touching 4,000 points for the first time on Wednesday as President Joe Biden's unveiled a $2 trillion-plus plan to rebuild the world's largest economy.

Biden's "American Jobs Plan" would put corporate America on the hook for the tab as the government creates millions of jobs building infrastructure, such as roads, tackles climate change and boosts human services like care for the elderly.

A child leaps off a bench outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Meanwhile, official data is likely to show that the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits slipped last week. It comes ahead of the closely-watched monthly jobs report on Friday that could show U.S. economy added 647,000 jobs last month after February's 379,000 rise.

U.S. stock markets will be shut on Good Friday.

At 06:38 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 3 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 10 points, or 0.25% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 110.75 points, or 0.85%.

Johnson & Johnson slipped 1.1% premarket after the drugmaker said it had found a problem with a batch of the drug substance for its COVID-19 vaccine being produced by Emergent Biosolutions.

Uber Technologies Inc rose nearly 2% after Jefferies began coverage on the ride-hailing company's shares with "buy" and said the company could be profitable soon.

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

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