US STOCKS-Futures higher after steep selloff with eyes on Big Tech earnings

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* Futures up: Dow 0.5%, S&P 0.7%, Nasdaq 1%

By Medha Singh
Oct 29 (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 AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and
Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O rose about 1% in premarket trading ahead
of their results after the closing bell.
Facebook Inc FB.O , which also reports later in the day,
gained 3.2%, riding on Pinterest Inc's PINS.N 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 SNAP.N and 6% in Twitter Inc
TWTR.N .
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 1YMcv1 were up 0.5% at
26,554 points and S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 0.71% at
3,286.75 points. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 0.97% at
11240 points.
Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O 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.