US STOCKS-Wall St set for higher open on earnings enthusiasm

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* U.S. adds China's Huawei to trade blacklist
* Walmart gains after comp sales beat
* Cisco rises on upbeat sales forecast
* Futures up: Dow 0.34%, S&P 0.32%, Nasdaq 0.14%

(Adds comment, updates prices)
By Amy Caren Daniel
May 16 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open higher on
Thursday, as upbeat quarterly results from Cisco and Walmart
helped investors look past strained relations between the United
States and China after Washington blacklisted Chinese telecom
giant Huawei.
Walmart Inc WMT.N rose 3.1% in premarket trading after it
reported its best first-quarter same-store sales growth in 9
years. However, the big box retailer said prices for shoppers
will rise due to higher tariffs on Chinese imports. Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O gained 3.4% on an upbeat sales
forecast and after the network gear maker said minimal sales
exposure to China and changes to its supply chains have helped
cushion the impact from trade dispute. "Strong results from Cisco will spillover to tech names,
which are likely to be beneficiaries from the earnings," said
Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush
Securities in Los Angeles.
"Economic strength will help investors look past any kind of
issues and I do not expect any kind of sharp pull backs."
The Commerce Department said U.S. homebuilding increased
more than expected in April, suggesting declining mortgage rates
were starting to provide some support to the struggling housing
market. Another report showed the number of Americans seeking
unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week,
pointing to sustained labor market strength that should underpin
the economy as growth slows. Investors have been closely watching trade-related news,
which has been mixed so far. Washington said it was adding
Huawei Technologies Co HWT.UL to its "Entity List", in a move
that bans it from acquiring components and technology from U.S.
firms without prior approval. Trade concerns have dented a rally in stocks this year and
has put the benchmark index more than 3% below its all-time high
that it hit just two-weeks ago.
However, U.S. stock indexes posted gains in the previous two
sessions on hopes the protracted trade dispute that has
threatened global growth could be resolved, as the two sides
were expected to resume talks in Beijing soon.
At 8:41 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 88 points, or
0.34%. S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 9.25 points, or 0.32% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 10.25 points, or 0.14%.
Huawei's suppliers Qorvo Inc QRVO.O , Skyworks Solutions
Inc SWKS.O , Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O , Xilinx Inc XLNX.O , Micron
Technology Inc MU.O , Nvidia Corp NVDA.O fell between 1% and
3.6%.
First-quarter earnings have been largely positive. Of the
457 S&P 500 companies that have reported results, about 75% have
beaten profit expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings growth of 1.4%, a
significant turnaround from the 2% loss seen on April 1.