|
Wall St set to open 1% higher as tech stocks roar back
By Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks looked set to open 1% higher on Tuesday
as technology firms bounced back on easing concerns around the
Omicron variant, while Intel jumped after plans to take its
self-driving car unit public.
Shares of the chip giant surged 9.3% in premarket trading after
revealing the plan to list Mobileye in the United States in
mid-2022.
Other chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices, Micron Technology and
Nvidia rose 3.0%. Big Tech stocks Google-owner Alphabet,
Microsoft, Amazon and Apple gained nearly 2%.
Tesla Inc rose 3.7% in premarket trading after dropping into
bear market territory, or 20% off its record high close, on an
intraday basis on Monday.
Some high-flying growth stocks were battered in recent days as
investors rotated into sectors like energy, banks that stand to
perform better in a tightened U.S. monetary policy environment.
News of the Omicron variant also injected volatility into the
market last week.
U.S. stock indexes, however, closed higher on Monday as
investors were encouraged by optimistic comments from a top U.S.
official on the latest COVID-19 variant. The CBOE volatility
index too eased from a 10-month high it hit last week.
"We think that in 2022, markets will continue to see periods of
optimism and pessimism on both inflation and growth, and
flip-flop between those views until there is more clarity," said
Willem Sels, global chief investment officer, private banking
and wealth management at HSBC.
At 7:02 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 355 points, or 1.01%, S&P
500 e-minis were up 60.25 points, or 1.31%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were up 284.75 points, or 1.8%.
Shares of Vir Biotechnology jumped 11.3% after British drugmaker
GSK said an antibody-based COVID-19 therapy it is developing
with Vir is effective against all mutations of the new Omicron
variant.
Travel shares continued the momentum, with Carnival Corp and
United Airlines up 3.3% and 2.6%, respectively, leading the
gains among the major airlines and cruise operators.
American Airlines Group Inc rose 2.8% after the carrier said
Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker would retire on March 31.
Oil stocks including Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp gained,
tracking gains in crude prices.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru;
Editing by Maju Samuel and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
