Stock futures rise as earnings season picks up steam

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures climbed on Monday, signaling the S&P 500 could rebound from its worst one-day drop since June 29 on Friday, as earnings season kicks into high gear.

Investors have scoured quarterly earnings for clues on the strength of the economic recovery in light of flagging economic data. On Friday, U.S. stocks slid after dismal consumer sentiment data and anemic revenues from GE and two big banks.

This week, 12 Dow components and 122 S&P 500 companies are set to report quarterly results.

"What we really have here is a market that is trying to assess how much the economy has slowed and what that means in terms of future earnings growth," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York.

"Once the market realizes that growth is not going to slow to the point where earnings will fall off a cliff, then the market will respond in a better tone."

S&P 500 futures rose 2.4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 39 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 2.25 points.

Hasbro Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit Monday morning as tight cost controls offset tepid sales. Shares were unchanged at $39.50 in premarket trade.

BP Plc has spent nearly $4 billion on efforts to tackle its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and aims to permanently kill the well in the first half of August. U.S.-listed BP shares were off 1.9 percent to $36.41.

Halliburton Co , reported an 83 percent jump in second-quarter profit on Monday, on strong U.S. onshore drilling, but a ban on deepwater activity in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to hurt full year results. Halliburton shares gained 2.8 percent to $28.28.

Microsoft Corp edged up 0.6 percent to $25.03 after UBS raised its fourth-quarter estimates, citing a return in enterprise demand. The maker of the Windows operating system is set to report earnings Thursday.

A number of computer and technology-related companies will report after the closing bell. International Business Machines Corp is in danger of missing the average Wall Street estimate for its second-quarter revenue as the weaker euro dents sales in Europe. The continent accounts for about 30 percent of revenue. Texas Instruments Inc is also due to report.

The NAHB Index, measuring sentiment on home building, is set to fall to 16 for July from 17 in June, according to a Reuters poll.

Boeing Co will announce a significant number of orders for new airplanes in the next couple of days, the chief executive of its commercial airplanes division said Monday. The company has also taken an order for 30 777 wide-bodies from Dubai-based-Emirates. Shares rose 1.8 percent to $63.

Private equity firms TPG and Carlyle Group won a bidding war for Australian hospital owner Healthscope Ltd , agreeing to pay $1.73 billion in the country's largest buyout deal since 2007, besting an offer from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co .

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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