Wall Street set to open higher amid earnings, tech deal

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - Wall Street looked set to open higher on Thursday as a flurry of strong corporate results and a multi-billion dollar deal in the technology sector boosted sentiment about equity markets.

Profits at S&P 500 companies have largely exceeded analysts' estimates for the third quarter so far, setting up for the first profit growth since the second quarter of 2015.

Overall earnings for the S&P 500 companies in the latest quarter are expected to rise 2.2 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Investors also took Qualcomm's deal to buy NXP Semiconductors for about $47 billion as a sign of confidence in the U.S. equity market. NXP's shares rose 2.32 percent in premarket trading, while Qualcomm rose nearly 2 percent. Stocks of other chipmakers including Micron Tech were trading higher.

"Thus far with low expectations for earnings growth, profits have pleasantly surprised to the upside and there is a little bit of a rotation taking place out of big single names like Apple into other names like Tesla," said John Brady, senior vice president at R.J. O'Brien & Associates in Chicago.

"Likewise, energy names are under-owned and if crude stays around the $50 level, money is going to come out of the sidelines and into these companies."

Oil prices rose for the first time this week on Thursday as a further drop in U.S. crude inventories countered investor doubts that OPEC will be able to implement a production cut.

Dow e-minis were up 33 points, or 0.18 percent at 8:36 a.m. ET, with 36,960 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 7.25 points, or 0.34 percent, with 214,017 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 20.25 points, or 0.42 percent, on volume of 32,499 contracts.

Data on Thursday showed the number of American filing for jobless claims fell last week, pointing to a firming labor market, while a separate report showed new orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods unexpectedly fell in September amid weak demand for electronic products.

The data will play into the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates at its policy meeting next week. Though a rate hike is not the likely outcome of the meeting that falls days before the U.S. presidential election, traders expect the Fed to chalk a more definite path for a move in December.

Healthcare companies Bristol-Myers and Celgene rose about 4 percent after posting strong results, helped by the success of their top drugs.

Among the technology companies adding to the shine was Twitter which rose nearly 5 percent after its quarterly results beat expectations.

Tesla jumped 5.24 percent to $212.83 after the electric carmaker reported its first quarterly net profit in more than three years.

F5 Networks jumped 7.4 percent after its quarterly revenue beat estimates.

Google parent Alphabet rose 0.5 percent while online retailer Amazon.com was up 0.9 percent in anticipation of earnings scheduled after market close.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)