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* Futures up: Dow 0.99%, S&P 0.97%, Nasdaq 1.14%
By Medha Singh
Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose about 1% on
Monday as signs of an interest rate reform in China bolstered
hopes that major economies would act to stave off the slowing
economic effects of escalating global trade tensions.
The latest stimulus for the world's second-largest economy
follows news of potential German economic easing on Friday,
which helped Wall Street's major indexes end the session more
than 1% higher. The indexes racked up their third straight weekly loss on
Friday and the S&P 500 .SPX is now about 5% away from a record
high hit in July. However, traders will be split on direction
for the next few weeks as they balance trade risks and signs of
slowing growth with the potential for more action from the U.S.
Federal Reserve and others in September.
The week's big centerpieces are Wednesday's release of
minutes from the Fed's July policy meeting, when the central
bank cut rates for the first time in more than a decade and
Chair Jerome Powell's speech at a central banks meeting in
Jackson Hole on Friday.
With a bond market rally easing, interest-rate sensitive
lenders rose in premarket trading. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) BAC.N ,
Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) C.N , JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) & Co JPM.N , Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
GS.N , Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co WFC.N and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) MS.N were
all up between 1.5% and 2%.
Chipmakers, which depend on China for a large portion of
their revenue, also gained. Intel Corp INTC.O , Advanced Micro
Devices Inc AMD.O , Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O , Micron Technology
Inc MU.O , Nvidia Corp NVDA.O were all up between 1% and 2%.
At 7:02 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 256 points, or
0.99%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 28 points, or 0.97% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 87 points, or 1.14%.
The so-called FAANG group - Facebook Inc FB.O , Amazon.com
Inc AMZN.O , Apple AAPL.O , Netflix Inc NFLX.O and
Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O - were up between 1% and
1.6%, with the iPhone maker leading the gains.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had spoken
with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook about the impact of U.S.
tariffs.