U.S. Stock Futures Rise
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 8:18 AM ET 04/16/14
U.S. stock futures rose, putting the market on course for a third-straight gain, as better-than-expected growth data from China helped offset mixed earnings reports.
About 90 minutes ahead of the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 67 points, or 0.4%, to 16272.
S&P 500 index futures rose eight points, or 0.4%, to 1848 and Nasdaq-100 futures gained 18 points, or 0.5%, to 3509. Changes in stock futures don't always accurately predict stock moves after the opening bell.
On Tuesday, stocks ended a roller-coaster session broadly higher. The Dow closed up 89 points to post the best two- day point gain since March 18.
The recently hard-hit Nasdaq Composite was down as much as 1.9% at a five-month low midday Tuesday before recovering to close up 0.3%. At Tuesday's low, the Nasdaq had lost 9.5% from the March 5, 14-year closing high of 4357.97, weighed down by valuation concerns, particularly surrounding previously highflying biotechnology stocks and relatively young Internet companies.
Helping buoy sentiment Wednesday, data showed that China's gross domestic product grew 7.4% in the first quarter, the slowest rate in 18 months, but above economist forecasts of 7.3% and close to the government's target of "about 7.5% ."
The data gave Asian and European markets a boost, as it assuaged fears of a sharper slowdown in the world's second- largest economy. "The reported economic slowdown in China in the first quarter wasn't as sharp as some had feared," said Lee Hardman, a currency analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in London.
Among early stock movers, Dow component Intel slipped 0.3% after reporting late Tuesday first-quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates, while revenue was in line with its forecast and PC sales continued to decline.
Yahoo surged 7.8% after first-quarter results exceeded expectations, and the company provided an upbeat revenue outlook for the current quarter.
Bank of America slipped 0.7% after the banking giant reported it swung to a first-quarter loss as a result of previously-disclosed litigation expenses, while revenue fell slightly less than expected.
At 8:30 a.m. Eastern, new residential construction for March is expected to rise 6.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 965,000, while building permits are seen unchanged at 1.01 million. Industrials production for March, due at 9:15 a.m., is forecast to rise 0.4% on the month. Capacity utilization is expected to increase to 78.7% from 78.4% in February.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.653% from 2.628% late Tuesday.
Gold futures gained 0.2% to $1,303.10 an ounce, after falling 2% Tuesday to mark the biggest one-day percentage loss since Dec. 19. Crude-oil futures added 0.9% to $104.73 a barrel. The dollar rose against the yen, but lost some ground against the euro.
European markets were broadly higher as upbeat Chinese data offset mixed data out of Europe. The Stoxx Europe 600 advanced 0.9% after falling to a three-week low on Tuesday. Germany's DAX 30 index climbed 1%, France's CAC 40 rallied 1% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 tacked on 0.5%.
Data showed euro-zone inflation in March rose 0.5% from a year ago, the lowest annual rate since November 2009, and confirming preliminary estimates released last month.
Separately, U.K. unemployment averaged 6.9% between December and February, the lowest rate since February 2009, and below the 7% threshold at which the Bank of England has previously said it would begin considering a rise in interest rates.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average shot up 3%, helped by China's GDP data, and after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said he would closely monitor stock prices and that inflation was on a steady track toward the 2.0% target. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.2%.
Among other stocks seeing early activity, Google, which is due to report results after the close, rose 1%.
Twitter tacked on 0.6%. The stock shot up 11% Tuesday, the biggest one-day gain since the microblogging site went public in November, a day after some of the company's earliest and biggest backers said they didn't plan to sell shares when rules barring them from doing so expire next month.
Twitter had been one of the hardest hit of the previous highfliers, as the stock was down 37% on the year through Friday, after ending last year 145% above its $26 initial public offering price.
Write to Tomi Kilgore at tomi.kilgore@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-16-140818ET
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