By Shreyashi Sanyal
Dec 21 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures surged on Tuesday, following a steep selloff in the previous session, as strong quarterly earnings from Nike and a positive forecast from chipmaker Micron helped lift sentiment.
A rapidly spreading Omicron variant has rattled stock markets around the world, triggering major routs in the final month of the year, as investor fret about its impact on the global recovery.
Shares of Nike Inc NKE.N rose 3.6%, leading gains among Dow .DJI components trading premarket, as it beat quarterly estimates for profit and revenue, and sounded confident of a letup in supply chain problems in its next fiscal year.
Micron Technology Inc MU.O led gains among chipmakers, with an 8% jump, after it forecast upbeat second-quarter earnings and topped Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit and revenue.
Their positive quarterly updates helped allay some concerns about broader supply chain constraints in a high inflation environment, which has become a cause for concern for central banks globally.
Shares of fellow semiconductor makers, including Nvidia Corp NVDA.O, Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O, Intel Corp INTC.O and Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD.O, rose between 0.7% and 2.7%.
Mega-cap growth firms, including Tesla Inc TSLA.O, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O, Apple Inc AAPL.O, Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O, Meta Platforms FB.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O, rose between 0.8% and 1.6% after taking a beating in the previous session.
Investors have taken a more defensive stance this month, with sectors such as consumer staples .SPLCRS, real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU among top gainers in December.
At 6:43 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 319 points, or 0.92%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 43.75 points, or 0.96%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 170.75 points, or 1.09%.
Travel-related stocks that had fallen in the previous session on the prospect of tighter curbs rose on Tuesday. Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N added 1.9% to lead gains among U.S. carriers, while Wynn Resorts WYNN.O gained 1.7%.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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