US STOCKS-Wall St set to jump on easing U.S.-China tensions, jobs report

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* Plunge in April nonfarm payrolls smaller than feared
* Disney rises as tickets sellout for Shanghai park
* Uber Technologies climbs as ride service bookings recover
* Futures up: Dow 1.19%, S&P 1.18%, Nasdaq 0.98%

(Adds quotes, details; updates prices)
By C Nivedita and Medha Singh
May 8 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to jump at the open on
Friday as an easing in U.S.-China friction added to optimism
from data showing the U.S. economy lost fewer jobs in April than
feared due to the coronavirus crisis.
Official figures showed nonfarm payrolls plummeted 20.5
million in April - their steepest plunge since the Great
Depression - but the number was still better than the 22 million
forecast by economists. "Going in, we knew we were going to see staggering job
losses, but what we are looking at are temporary job losses,
which gives us hope that those jobs could come back," said
Charlie Ripley, senior market strategist for Allianz Investment
Management in Minneapolis.
Wall Street is now on course for its first weekly increase
in three, with the Nasdaq recouping all its losses for 2020, as
investors pinned their hopes on supply chains coming back on
track and a revival in consumer spending after several U.S.
states reopened economies.
On Thursday, financial markets began pricing in a negative
U.S. interest rate environment for the first time ever,
expecting the Federal Reserve to pump even more cash into the
system to rescue the economy from a deep global recession.
"The disconnect between sanguine financial markets and an
imploding real economy grows larger by the day as bets for more
and more stimulus are leading Wall Street to turn a blind eye to
how catastrophic economic data really are," said Marios
Hadjikyriacos, investment analyst at online broker XM.
Also lifting the mood on Friday, Beijing said Sino-U.S.
trade negotiators had agreed to improve the atmosphere for the
implementation of a Phase 1 deal, days after President Donald
Trump threatened to impose new tariffs. At 9:01 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 284 points, or
1.19%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 34 points, or 1.18% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 89 points, or 0.98%.
Among early movers, Disney rose 2.7% as tickets for the
earliest days of Shanghai Disneyland's re-opening in China sold
out rapidly. Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N jumped 5.9% as the company
said its ride service bookings slowly recovered in recent weeks
and that it expects a coronavirus-related slowdown will delay
the goal of becoming profitable by a matter of quarters, not
years. But Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp CTSH.O fell 4.7%
after the IT services and outsourcing firm warned of weak demand
this year.
About 392 of the S&P 500 companies have reported so far and
first-quarter earnings are expected to have fallen 12.1%, with
analysts expecting an earnings recession by the second quarter,
according to Refinitiv data.