Futures gain as global surveys boost rebound hopes

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday, as Apple share climbed and upbeat manufacturing sector surveys in China and Europe set the tone for United States factory activity data, due later in the day.

Apple Inc rose 2.7% premarket, rising for the second day after its stock split took effect, as a report said the iPhone maker has asked suppliers to make at least 75 million 5G iPhones for later this year.

China’s factory activity expanded at the fastest clip in nearly a decade in August and eurozone output also stayed strong last month, buoying global stocks.

ISM survey data at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) is likely to show U.S. manufacturing activity expanded slightly last month after hitting a 1-1/2 year high in July.

Investors will keep a close watch on the monthly U.S. jobs report due on Friday amid signs the labor market’s recovery is stalling.

Wall Street’s main indexes recorded their fifth straight monthly gain on Monday following massive central bank support, U.S. government aid and demand for tech-focused stocks, even as the S&P 500 and Dow finished the session lower in month-end trading.

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 have set consecutive new all-time highs recently, but the blue-chip Dow is still about 4% below its February high.

Aiding sentiment, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said late on Monday the Trump administration and Senate Republicans have been in regular contact over coronavirus relief measures and a new bill will “hopefully” be unveiled next week.

At 6:12 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 5 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 e-minis were up 9.75 points, or 0.28% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 120.75 points, or 1.00%.

Among stocks, Zoom Video Communications Inc surged 26.4% premarket after the video-conferencing platform raised its annual revenue forecast by more than 30% as it converted more of its huge free user base to paid subscriptions.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)