Nasdaq futures soar on Apple; Caterpillar, GM loom
Post# of 102228
GE in spotlight on M&A talk; Durable goods, weekly jobless claims to come
MADRID (MarketWatch) —The Nasdaq Composite could steal the show on Wall Street later on Thursday, with tech futures soaring well over 1% in the wake of strong results from Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc.
Other stock futures also pointed higher, but less dramatically, as investors looked ahead to one of the busiest days of the week for earnings. Caterpillar Inc., General Motors Co. and 3M Co. are among the heavyweights to report ahead of the bell, while the data side will deliver durable-goods orders and weekly jobless claims.
Futures for the Nasdaq 100 (GLC:NDM4) surged 52.75 points, or 1.5%, to 3,607.25, while those for the S&P 500 index (GLC:SPM4) rose 8.2 points, or 0.4%, to 1,881.10. Futures for the Dow industrials (CBE JM4) added 45 points, or 0.3%, to 16,505.
On the economic front, durable-goods orders for March will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Economists polled by MarketWatch foresee a 1.8% advance in March orders after a preliminary 2.2% gain in February. But stripping out transportation, orders are projected to rise less than 1%.
At the same time, the government will issue weekly jobless claims. Economists predict these will climb to 315,000 in the seven days ended April 19, largely due to Easter, as claims often rise around the holiday. Read: Spotlight on the economy
But it may be hard to steal the spotlight from earnings. Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were up nearly 8% in premarket, after earnings and revenue kate Wednesday topped Wall Street forecasts and the company announced a 7-for-1 stock split. Also: Apple’s split could pave way into Dow industrials, for whatever that’s worth
If Apple matches that gain during Thursday’s regular session, it would be the best day for the stock since April 2012, when it rose 8.9%. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nasdaq-futur...beforebell