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* Futures up: Dow 0.12%, S&P 0.21%, Nasdaq 0.34%
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on
Friday, a day after Wall Street logged its biggest daily drop in
nearly three weeks on a slide in technology-related firms, ahead
of a reading on monthly U.S. business activity data.
The IHS Markit's flash reading on manufacturing and services
PMIs, due at 0945 a.m ET (1445 GMT), is expected to show factory
activity drifted lower in February.
The three major indexes slipped on Thursday weighed down by
mega-cap technology companies such as Apple Inc AAPL.O , Tesla
Inc TSLA.O and Facebook Inc FB.O , while data showed a
fragile recovery in the labor market. Strong earnings, progress in vaccination roll-outs and hopes
of a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package helped U.S. stock
indexes hit record highs at the start of the week.
However, the Dow .DJI was nearly flat for the week, while
the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC
were tracking their first weekly loss this month.
Concerns over higher stock market valuations and a potential
snag in inoculation efforts have led to fears of a short-term
pullback in equities.
BofA expects a more than 10% pullback in stocks which are
trading at more than 22 times 12-month forward earnings, the
most expensive since the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.
At 6:41 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 38 points, or
0.12%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 8.25 points, or 0.21%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 45.75 points, or 0.34%.
Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N fell
2.3% after Britain's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a group
of Uber drivers are entitled to worker rights such as the
minimum wage. Applied Materials Inc AMAT.O rose 5.1% after it forecast
second-quarter revenue above market expectations, as demand for
its semiconductor manufacturing tools picked up during a global
shortage of semiconductors. Video-streaming device maker Roku Inc ROKU.O added 3.8%
after it reported quarterly revenue above market expectations,
thanks to an influx of cord-cutting subscribers dropping their
cable packages for streaming services.