(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Futures up: Dow 0.24%, S&P 0.28%, Nasdaq 0.41%
By Medha Singh
Sept 30 (Reuters) - Advances in some of the biggest
technology companies bolstered U.S. stock index futures on
Monday, as investors looked past last week's reports that
Washington was considering delisting Chinese companies from U.S.
stock exchanges.
Dow Industrials-listed .DJI stocks were set to be boosted
by Apple Inc AAPL.O , up 0.8% before the bell, as JP Morgan
raised its iPhone shipment volume forecasts. Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O climbed 0.4%.
Still, Wall Street's main indexes were on course to end the
quarter with their worst performance so far this year, with
sentiment swinging wildly due to developments on the U.S.-China
trade war and mixed indications from domestic economic data.
The reports about the United States curbing Chinese
companies' access to U.S. capital markets sparked a sell-off on
Friday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting a more than
three-week low.
"Such a direct intervention in the functioning of America's
capital markets would struggle to get the necessary level of
domestic political support, not to mention implementing the
requisite overhauls to financial market regulations," said Paras
Anand, head of Fidelity International's asset management unit in
Asia Pacific region.
The third quarter witnessed an escalation in trade tensions
between the world's two largest economies, the inversion of a
key U.S. yield curve, a second U.S. interest rate cut and
political turmoil in Washington.
The S&P 500 .SPX and Dow are on track for their smallest
percentage gain in three quarters, with the Nasdaq .IXIC
heading for a marginal decline.
The benchmark index is now more than 2% away from its record
high hit in July.
At 7:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 63 points, or
0.24%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 8.25 points, or 0.28% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 31.25 points, or 0.41%.
UnitedHealth Group UNH.N slipped 0.7% after BMO Capital
Markets downgraded the stock to "market perform." The focus for this week will be economic data, including a
pivotal jobs report and the September ISM purchasing managers
index (PMI). August's PMI data showed a contraction in the
manufacturing sector.