US STOCKS-Futures point to Wall St gains, eyes on consumer data

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* Futures up: Dow 0.22%, S&P 0.28%, Nasdaq 0.23%

By Ambar Warrick and Medha Singh
Sept 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock markets were set to gain on
Friday but still looked on course to end the week in negative
territory as the shock of the launch of an impeachment
investigation into President Trump was countered by hopes for
progress with China on trade.
Upbeat comments late in the previous session from China's
foreign minister Wang Yi helped prop up stock markets globally
as investors await a new round of trade talks between Washington
and Beijing next month.
Markets this week have been particularly vulnerable to
headlines on Sino-U.S. trade talks and political ructions in
Washington, before the start of third quarter corporate
earnings.
Growing nerves over a slowdown in the global economy and the
fate of a 10-year bull run for Wall Street in that light have
seen buyers focussing for weeks on buying into defensive sectors
like consumer staples .SPLRCS and real estate .SPLRCR .
A batch of economic data on Friday will provide further cues
on the strength of the U.S. consumer amid the prolonged trade
war.
The core personal consumption expenditures price index - a
closely watched inflation metric for the Federal Reserve - is
expected to have inched up in annual terms in August, while
personal income is likely to have risen 0.4% on the month after
a 0.1% increase in July. Both reports are due at 8:30 a.m. ET
(1230 GMT).
A separate report is expected to show orders for U.S.
durable goods slipped 1% in August after a 2% rise the previous
month. A University of Michigan survey on consumer sentiment is
expected at 10:00 a.m. ET.
Shares in U.S. banking major Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N rose
2.3% premarket after it named Bank of New York Mellon BK.N
chief Charles Scharf as its new chief executive, tasked with
reviving the bank's fortunes after a series of mis-selling
scandals. Facebook Inc FB.O , Netflix NFLX.O , and Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O edged up after having lost between 2.6% and 5% so far
this week.
Micron Technology Inc MU.O tumbled 6.2% premarket as it
forecast first-quarter profit below Wall Street targets, saying
it was "mindful" of economic and trade uncertainty even though
there were signs of an uptick in memory chip demand.
Other semiconductor companies Advanced Micro Devices Inc
AMD.O , Nvidia Corp NVDA.O dropped about 1% each.
At 7:27 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 60 points, or
0.22%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 8.25 points, or 0.28% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 17.75 points, or 0.23%.