Wall Street set to open higher as tech stocks gain

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to open higher on Thursday as beaten-down technology stocks posted slim gains in a roller-coaster week for Wall Street.

The S&P 500 and the Dow were on track to log their worst quarter in more than two years on concerns over a global trade war and interest rates hikes, as well as a selloff in technology stock's triggered by Facebook Inc's data scandal.

Shares of Facebook, Netflix, Apple and Alphabet were up between 0.68 percent and 1.6 percent in premarket trading, with Amazon the only laggard among the FAANG stocks.

The group is up 14 percent so far this year, but privacy concerns in the wake of Facebook's scandal nearly two weeks back has wiped $400 billion off their value.

"We've gone through a period of increased volatility and one with competing narratives - the bond market is telling us something about the economy and the stock market is concerned about valuations in technology shares," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR in Boston.

"In general, the market is trapped between two narratives."

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell to seven-week lows of 2.7662 percent on rising demand for safe havens.

Economic data released on Thursday did little to change the expectations on interest rate hikes.

Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in February, after a 0.3 percent advance in January. Core PCE, the Federal Reserve's favored gauge of inflation, rose 1.6 percent on an annualized basis, in line with economists' expectations.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased 0.2 percent last month after a similar gain in January.

At 8:35 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 75 points, S&P 500 e-minis rose 9.25 points and Nasdaq 100 e-minis gained 38.5 points.

The S&P 500 is down 2.56 percent and the Dow 3.5 percent, on track for their worst quarterly performances in more than two years.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq's slim 0.66 percent rise is keeping it on course for its seventh straight quarter of gains.

GameStop shares fell 10.8 percent after the company provided disappointing full-year sales forecast.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)