Wall St set to gain from Nike jump, bank stocks boost

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday, as Nike jumped after reporting strong results and as financials gained after clearing the Federal Reserve's stress test.

Nike's shares jumped 10.2 percent premarket after the athletic shoe maker returned to growth in North America and gave an upbeat forecast.

Financial stocks, which snapped a 13-day losing streak on Thursday, rose after U.S. lenders cleared the second part of the Federal Reserve's annual stress tests.

Wells Fargo jumped 3.9 percent, Citigroup gained 1.8 percent, while Bank of America rose 1.6 percent and JPMorgan rose 1.5 percent.

The gains in Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and State Street were lower as they cleared the test with conditions.

The futures took a step back after news website Axios reported President Donald Trump had repeatedly said he wants the United States to withdraw from the World Trade Organization.

But futures soon regained their footing, and even edged higher after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business Network that the report was wrong.

"The markets are very much subject to headlines on trade and tariffs," said Peter Cecchini, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.

"They are important from the standpoint that trade globalisation has been the cornerstone for growth and when you do something to sort of undermine that cornerstone, that's a reasonable reason for concern."

At 8:54 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 107 points, or 0.44 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were up 9.25 points, or 0.34 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 29 points, or 0.41 percent.

U.S. consumer prices accelerated in the year to May, with a measure of underlying inflation hitting the Federal Reserve's 2-percent target for the first time in six years, the Commerce Department said.

"Unless we start to see inflation really explode to two-and-a-half to 3 percent, interest rates are going to remain lower than many have suggested," said Cecchini.

After a rocky year, the benchmark S&P 500 is holding on to a slim 1.62 percent gain for the year, on track for its smallest gain for the first half of any year since 2015 as worries about trade, rising interest rates and political uncertainties have rocked the markets.

Among stocks, Constellation Brands fell 3.9 percent after the Corona beer maker reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and maintained its full-year earnings forecast that missed estimates.

KB Homes rose 7.2 percent after the homebuilder's second-quarter results beat Wall Street estimates.

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)