Futures bounce on easing debt-ceiling, inflation worries

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures bounced on Thursday after a temporary truce in the debt-ceiling standoff in Congress relieved concerns of a possible government debt default, while a dip in oil prices eased worries of higher inflation.

Top U.S. Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Wednesday floated a plan to support an extension of the federal debt ceiling into December, potentially heading off a historic default.

High-growth stocks including Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc, led the charge in premarket trading, rising between 1% and 1.2% amid a dip in the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield on Thursday.

European and Asian stocks rose earlier in the day after cooling oil and gas prices offered relief to investors worried about runaway inflation. U.S. energy stocks including Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and APA Corp led declines with falls between 0.6% and 2.1%.

Investors also looked forward to the release of weekly jobless claims data, likely showing 348,000 Americans filed claims for state unemployment benefits last week compared with 362,000 in the prior week.

The ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday showed private payrolls increased by 568,000 jobs last month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a rise of 428,000 jobs

This comes ahead of the more comprehensive non-farm payrolls data due on Friday. It is expected to cement the case for the Fed’s slowing of asset purchases.

At 6:29 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 176 points, or 0.51%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 27.75 points, or 0.64%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 129 points, or 0.87%.

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