Futures climb 1% as Putin hints at progress in talks with Ukraine

[March 11, 2022]  By Devik Jain and Sabahatjahan Contractor

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures jumped on Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were "certain positive shifts" in talks with Ukraine, lifting mood at the end of a roller-coaster week marked by concerns about geopolitical tensions and surging oil prices.

In a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Putin added talks continued "practically on a daily basis". He did not elaborate.

"At this stage, we're in a headline market and that is very evident. One negative headline comes out everything sells off, one slightly positive headline comes out everything skies it," said Keith Temperton, a sales trader at Forte Securities.

"It means absolutely nothing. It's a headline so what can you say or predict with the progress. Nobody knows."

Meanwhile, Russian forces are bearing down on Kyiv are regrouping northwest of the Ukrainian capital, satellite pictures showed, and Britain said on Friday that Moscow could now be planning an assault on the city within days.

Citigroup and Google-parent Alphabet Inc added 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively, in premarket trading to lead gains among big banks and megacap growth companies.

Energy shares fell, with Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil down 2.2% and 0.4%, respectively.

The S&P 500 energy sector has risen in nine out of the past 10 sessions and has gained 38.5% year-to-date on soaring crude prices. Oil scaled as much as $139 a barrel earlier this week on supply fears due to Western sanctions on Russian oil and oil products over its invasion of Ukraine. [O/R]

But the soaring oil prices fed into fears of higher inflation and slowing economic growth at a time when global central banks are seeking to tighten their pandemic-era monetary policies.

Wall Street slid on Thursday as four-decade high U.S. consumer prices cemented the case for a key interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.

All the major indexes are tracking a weekly decline of over 1.3% each, with the blue-chip Dow eyeing its fifth straight weekly loss.

At 6:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 388 points, or 1.17%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 56.25 points, or 1.32%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 215 points, or 1.58%.

Oracle Corp slipped 3.5% after the legacy software firm posted a tepid third-quarter profit due to higher spending for its cloud services.

Rivian Automotive Inc tumbled 10.8% after the EV maker warned supply-chain issues could cut its planned production by half to 25,000 vehicles in 2022.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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