By Shreyashi Sanyal
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday, extending a strong start to the year after worries about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus subsided and travel stocks bounced.
Equity markets across the globe bounced for the second straight day of trading in 2022, with the World Health Organization saying more evidence is emerging that the coronavirus variant is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants. [MKTS/GLOB]
Travel stocks led premarket advances with a 2.7% rise in Carnival Corp leading gains among cruise operators, while American Airlines gained 0.9%.
Big technology stocks that led gain in the previous session also rose, with Apple Inc, Tesla Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc gaining between 0.3% and 0.9%.
Ford Motor Co added 1.5% after the automaker said it will nearly double annual production capacity for its red-hot F-150 Lightning electric pickup to 150,000 vehicles.
General Electric Co rose 2.2% after Credit Suisse upgraded the conglomerate’s stock to “outperform” from “neutral”.
Foot Locker Inc slipped 3.8% after J.P. Morgan downgraded the sports and footwear retailer’s stock to “underweight” from “neutral”.
At 6:28 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 133 points, or 0.36%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 18.75 points, or 0.39%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 61.5 points, or 0.37%.
Meanwhile, data due at 10 a.m. ET is expected to show U.S. manufacturing activity eased last month from a reading of 61.1 in November. Economists polled by Reuters forecast the ISM Manufacturing PMI index to fall to 60.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
