U.S. Stock Futures rally as Greece appears ready to accept Bailout Terms
U.S. stock futures soared Wednesday, following a report that Greece’s prime minister will now agree to bailout terms set by the debt-burdened country’s creditors.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average YMU5, +0.83% leapt 160 points, or 0.9%, to 17,679.00, and those for the S&P 500 ESU5, +0.81% rallied 19.60 points, or 1%, to 2,074.50. Nasdaq 100 futures NQU5, +0.88% picked up 46 points, or 1.1%, to 4,436.50.
Futures were propelled higher after the Financial Times reported Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is ready to accept nearly all of the conditions to a new bailout deal that its international lenders proposed over the weekend.
With that news, Wall Street will get trading in the second half of 2015 underway after a losing quarter for the S&P 500. Data on tap Wednesday include a report on private-sector hiring, which could give a clue to the closely watched U.S. jobs report on Thursday.
Stocks globally had been hit this week as Greece and its creditors failed to work out a deal allowing the country access to new bailout funds. The S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.27% has felt the weight of turmoil in Greece; it finished the second quarter lower by 0.2%, snapping a nine-quarter winning streak. In Tuesday’s trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.13% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.57% ended slightly higher.
“With all the Greek furor, it’s hard to believe that a month has passed and nonfarm payrolls will be released tomorrow,” Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group, wrote early Wednesday.
Before the U.S. jobs reports is released Thursday — a day earlier than usual because of the Independence Day holiday — data on private-sector hiring in June will arrive from ADP at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time.
A reading of 218,000 jobs would be “marginally better” than May’s reading of 201,000, said Kelly. “Any better number here could ramp up the monetary tightening speculation,” she said.
At the half-year mark, the S&P is 0.2% higher, while the Dow is 1.1% lower. The Nasdaq is up 5.3% so far this year.
Data: After the ADP report, investors will get Markit’s reading of June manufacturing activity at 9:45 a.m. Eastern. Data on services activity for June will arrive from the Institute for Supply Management and construction-spending figures for May are both due at 10 a.m. Eastern. Figures on motor-vehicle sales for June should arrive throughout the day.
Earnings: Constellation Brands Inc. STZ, +0.36% is projected to report first-quarter earnings of $1.24 a share, according to a consensus survey by FactSet. The alcoholic-beverage company earned $1.07 a share a year earlier.
General Mills Inc. GIS, -0.61% is expected to report fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings of 71 cents a share, up from 67 cents a share a year ago.
Shares of Ford Motor Co. F, -0.07% and General Motors Co. GM, +0.30% will likely to move following the release of monthly car-sales data.
Nike Inc. NKE, +0.33% could see active trade after its co-founder Phil Knight created Swoosh LLC, a limited liability company, to hold his 128.5 million shares of Nike stock, equivalent to a 15% stake in the company.
Other markets: European stocks SXXP, +1.54% rallied on Wednesday’s developments out of Greece. Asian markets overnight finished mixed. Stocks in Shanghai SHCOMP, -5.23% sank 5.2%, but Japan’s Nikkei NIK, +0.46% picked up 0.5%. Oil futures CLQ5, -1.65% fell more than 1% while gold prices GCN5, +0.02% edged slightly higher. The dollar was up against most of its rivals on the ICE Dollar Index DXY, +0.30% .
Source: MarketWatch
