Wall Street futures higher after steep selloff with eyes on Big Tech earnings

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday following the S&P 500’s worst day in nearly five months as focus shifted to Big Tech earnings, but sentiment was fragile with five days to go before the Election Day.

Heavyweights Apple Inc , Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc rose about 1% in premarket trading ahead of their results after the closing bell.

Facebook Inc , which also reports later in the day, gained 3.2%, riding on Pinterest Inc’s upbeat forecast for sales growth that highlighted a rebound in ad spending.

Shares of the image-sharing company soared over 30%, also driving gains of 2% in Snap Inc and 6% in Twitter Inc .

Investors will get their first look at third-quarter U.S. GDP data at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT), which is likely to show a record pace of economic expansion fueled by $3 trillion in federal pandemic relief after a historic slump in the second-quarter.

A separate report is expected to show the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits likely dipped last week but still remained stubbornly high at 775,000 as boost from the fiscal aid faded.

Stalled efforts in Washington over fresh stimulus and an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases globally have put the Wall Street’s main indexes on course for their worst week since March.

The CBOE volatility index <.vix> dipped after closing at its highest level in nearly five months on Wednesday as uncertainty about a U.S. election outcome next week kept investors on edge.

More than 75 million Americans had already cast ballots in a historic turnout, with experts predicting a winner may not be declared on the night of Nov. 3 due to delay in counting mail in ballots.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden holds a comfortable lead over President Donald Trump in national polls, but the race in battleground states that will likely decide the election are tighter than the national surveys.

At 06:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 0.5% at 26,554 points and S&P 500 E-minis were up 0.71% at 3,286.75 points. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 0.97% at 11240 points.

Gilead Sciences Inc slipped 0.8% after it cut its 2020 revenue forecast, citing lower-than-expected demand and difficulty in predicting sales of remdesivir, the only treatment approved in the United States for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)