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* Airlines rise after Trump's call for support
* All eyes on Fed minutes, vice-presidential debate
* Levi Strauss jumps on surprise quarterly profit
* Futures up: Dow 0.82%, S&P 0.82%, Nasdaq 0.87%
(Adds comment; updates share prices)
By Devik Jain and Sagarika Jaisinghani
Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set to open higher
on Wednesday after President Donald Trump's abrupt call to end
stimulus talks sent Wall Street tumbling in the previous
session, while shares of Levi Strauss surged following a
surprise quarterly profit.
Trump broke off negotiations with Democrats on more economic
aid in a tweet on Tuesday, and promised a major stimulus bill if
he wins the Nov. 3 presidential election. The announcement sparked the worst session for the S&P 500
and the Dow in two weeks, while airlines .DJUSAR sank 3% as
the move appeared to scuttle $25 billion in new bailout for the
industry. Trump later urged Congress to instead pass a series of
smaller, stand-alone bills that would target airlines, small
businesses and give $1,200 stimulus checks to individuals.
Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N , American Airlines
Group Inc AAL.O , United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O and
JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU.O jumped between 3.4% and 6.4% in
premarket trading. "(The halt in stimulus talks) is unlikely to be the catalyst
for a significant sell-off as most market participants were not
anticipating that a deal will be reached ahead of the election
anyway," said Milan Cutkovic, market analyst at Axi Corp.
"Should there be no stimulus package announced shortly after
the election, investors could get increasingly nervous about the
economic recovery losing momentum."
Attention later in the day will be on minutes of the Federal
Reserve's policy meeting in September, due to be released a day
after Chair Jerome Powell called for more help for businesses
and households to keep a nascent economic recovery from
faltering. Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala
Harris are also set to square off in their only debate, which
comes less than a week after Trump contracted COVID-19 amid a
White House outbreak that has infected numerous high-profile
Republicans. Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls released on Tuesday showed
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden expanded his lead
over Trump in battleground Michigan and the two candidates were
locked in a toss-up race in North Carolina. At 8:19 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 226 points, or
0.82%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 27.5 points, or 0.82%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 98.5 points, or 0.87%.
Levi Strauss & Co LEVI.N jumped 13.2% and was on course to
open at a four-month high as it said it planned to open new
stores, in contrast to analysts' projections for it take a hit
from coronavirus-driven store closures. The company reported a
profit for the third quarter, defying expectations of a loss.
Shares of apparel retailer Gap Inc GPS.N rose 3.0%.
Analysts expect earnings at S&P 500 firms to have dropped
21.3% in the third quarter, according to data IBES data from
Refinitiv.
Still, the pace of declines is expected to have slowed
following a 30.6% slump in the second quarter, when Corporate
America took a hit from nationwide lockdowns.
Boeing Co BA.N gained 2.4% after the Federal Aviation
Administration issued a draft report on revised training
procedures for the planemaker's 737 MAX, a key milestone to the
plane's eventual ungrounding.