US STOCKS-Stimulus bets buoy futures ahead of jobless claims

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* Futures up: Dow 0.48%, S&P 0.46%, Nasdaq 0.92%

By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
July 23 (Reuters) - S&P 500 and Dow futures hovered near
five-month highs on Thursday, as signs that a new coronavirus
relief package was at hand lifted sentiment ahead of weekly
unemployment data.
Leading U.S. Senate Republicans and the White House late on
Wednesday said they had hammered out agreements in principle on
portions of a potential coronavirus-response bill, as lawmakers
raced to pass legislation by the end of July. Optimism about a potential vaccine, fiscal stimulus and
improving economic data has helped the benchmark S&P 500 recoup
most of its virus-induced losses and rise 1.4% this year. The
blue-chip Dow is still down about 5% year-to-date, while the
tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC has climbed about 19%.
Of the 75 S&P 500 companies that have reported quarterly
results, 77.3% of them have beaten profit estimates.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O rose 5.3% premarket after posting a
fourth consecutive quarterly profit, clearing a hurdle that
could lead to the electric carmaker's inclusion in the S&P 500
index .SPX . Microsoft Corp MSFT.O slipped 1.6% as its flagship cloud
computing business Azure reported quarterly sales growth of
under 50% for the first time ever. The Labor Department's most timely data on the economy is
likely to show about 1.30 million filed for jobless claims last
week, unchanged from the prior week as a resurgence in new
COVID-19 cases chipped at the budding recovery.
California on Wednesday overtook New York as the worst-hit
state for cases as U.S. deaths from the coronavirus rose by more
than 1,100 for a second day in a row. At 6:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 128 points, or
0.48%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 15 points, or 0.46%, and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 99.25 points, or 0.92%.
Home builder PulteGroup Inc PHM.N jumped about 5% after
posting higher quarterly profit, as record low mortgage rates
encouraged Americans to buy homes.
Southwest Airlines Co LUV.N posted a $915 million
quarterly loss and warned travel demand would remain depressed
until a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 becomes available.
Still, its shares rose 0.9%. American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O , Alaska Air Group Inc
ALK.N , microblogging website Twitter Inc TWTR.N and wireless
carrier AT&T Inc T.N are also due to report results on
Thursday.