US Stock Futures Surge After EU Summit Announcements

By Bhaskar Prasad | June 29 2012 5:19 AM

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open Friday as euro zone leaders at a Brussels summit agreed upon emergency measures to lower Italy's and Spain's borrowing costs and create a single regulatory oversight body for euro zone banks.

REUTERS

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange October 4, 2011.

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Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.96 percent, futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 index were up 1.24 percent and futures on the Nasdaq 100 index were up 1.35 percent.

Investors are keenly watching the European Union summit, which will conclude Friday. EU President Herman Van Rompuy announced that a 120-billion euro ($149 billion) plan had been approved to restore growth in the euro zone. Also, in an important move, repayment rules for emergency loans to Spanish banks were eased.

Investors are also likely to focus on domestic personal spending, as detailed by the Commerce Dept.'s Personal Income and Outlays report, which is expected Friday morning from the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal spending, which measures the change in the inflation adjusted value of all spending by consumers, is expected to show a rise of 0.1 percent in May, down from 0.3 percent in April.

A revised measure of consumer confidence from the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index will also be reported Friday. It is expected to remain unchanged at 74.1 in June.

U.S. markets fell Thursday as initial jobless claims declined to 386,000 last week and the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) remained flat at 1.9 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.20 percent, the S&P 500 Index was down 0.21 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.90 percent.

Major European indices were in the green as investor sentiment turned positive with the EU summit decision to ease rules for loans to Spanish banks. London's FTSE 100 rose 80.58 points, Germany's DAX 30 index was up 152.36 points and France's CAC 40 advanced by 84.13 points.

Asian markets also rose Friday following global cues. Market players were encouraged by the positive measures announced by the European leaders at the EU summit.