Futures rise in rebound from earlier losses

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Thursday, rebounding from early losses as investors sought bargains ahead of the latest report on the labor market.

Wall Street has been tracking European shares, with the S&P down for five of the past six sessions. Early Thursday, European shares <.FTEU3> shrugged off losses to rise 0.5 percent. <.EU>

Despite the gains, caution prevailed due to questions over how the political deadlock in Greece would affect the region's debt crisis. On Wednesday, equities came back from sharp declines after officials agreed to make a 4.2 billion euro bailout payment to Greece.

"We hit an inflection point after all our losses and investors are looking for spots to enter," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in New York. "However, with data coming up, things will surely become more volatile."

S&P 500 futures rose 8.3 points and were about even with 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 rose 34 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 10.25 points.

Cisco Systems Inc will be in view a day after it forecast weak fourth-quarter profits, adding to concerns about global technology spending. The stock fell 7.3 percent to $17.40 in premarket trading.

Weekly jobless claims, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), were seen rising by 4,000 to 369,000. This will be the first gauge of the labor market since last week's payrolls report, which came in sharply below expectations.

The Dow has fallen for six straight days, while the S&P rebounded from a two-month low on Wednesday, suggesting investors may use the index's two-day drop of more than 1 percent as a buying opportunity.

In another troubling sign from abroad, China's annual growth in imports in April was just 0.3 percent, far below forecasts of an 11 percent increase. Exports managed to grow just 4.9 percent versus expectations of 8.5 percent, data showed.

News Corp reported adjusted earnings that beat expectations late Wednesday and announced another $5 billion in stock buybacks.

With 441 of the S&P 500 companies reporting results through Wednesday morning, 66.7 percent exceeded estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data, versus more than 80 percent at the start of earnings season.

Shares of Avon Products Inc climbed 3.1 percent to $22.28 premarket after Coty Inc raised its buyout bid by $1.50 per share to $24.75.

March U.S. international trade data will be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). Economists in a Reuters poll expected the trade deficit to widen to $50 billion in March from $46.03 billion in February.

Investors stayed focused on the turmoil in Europe on Wednesday, sparking another down day, but a deal for another Greek bailout payment helped cut losses late in the session.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky