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* Futures up: Dow 0.22%, S&P 0.27%, Nasdaq 0.44%
By Medha Singh
Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday,
helped by gains in high-growth technology names including Apple,
while investors turned to the closely watched jobs report for
confirmation that the world's largest economy remains healthy.
The Labor Department's non-farm payrolls report is likely to
show U.S. job growth slowed in December, but the pace of hiring
probably remains more than enough to keep the longest economic
expansion in history chugging along. The data, which is expected at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT),
could determine whether or not Wall street's three main indexes
will rise beyond Thursday's all-time closing highs at the open.
Signs that the United States and Iran will stand down on
further military action, and firming hopes that an initial
U.S.-China trade deal will be signed next week have helped U.S.
stocks recover from a blip earlier this week caused by flaring
tensions in the Middle East.
At current levels, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was set
to breach 29,000 points at the open. Futures tracking Dow
1YMcv1 were up 65 points, or 0.22% at 7:00 a.m. ET.
S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 9 points, or 0.27% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 39.75 points, or 0.44%.
Technology stocks .SPLRCT , the market leaders of the last
decade, were on track for sharpest gains among the 11 main S&P
sectors in the first full trading week of 2019.
Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 0.7% in premarket trading after
Credit Suisse became the latest to raise its price target on the
stock, citing better-than-feared iPhone 11 cycle so far.
Apple suppliers Qorvo Inc QRVO.O and Skyworks Solutions
Inc SWKS.O also gained more than 2% each after Mizuho upgraded
both the stocks to "buy" on an improving 5G handset outlook.
Facebook Inc FB.O was up 0.7% after a report Bernstein
started coverage on the stock with an "outperform" rating.
With the fourth-quarter earnings season set to begin in
earnest next week, analysts expect profits for S&P 500 companies
to drop 0.6% in their second consecutive quarterly decline,
according to IBES data from Refinitiv.