Equity Futures Edge Up After Wall St. Hits Record High
U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher on Friday, a day after Wall Street hit record high on President Donald Trump's promise to unveil a tax reform plan in the coming weeks.
Trump called the tax plan as "phenomenal", but offered no specifics other than citing the need to lower tax burden on businesses.
The news helped reignite a post-election rally, which had stalled in recent weeks on concerns over Trump's protectionist stance and the lack of clarity on his policies.
In a setback to Trump, a U.S. appeals court refused to reinstate his most controversial executive order to temporarily ban people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
Jeb Hensarling, the Republican chairman of a key House of Representatives committee, laid out his plan to roll back Wall Street and consumer protection rules, which were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, according to a staff memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan, were up in premarket trading on Friday.
A University of Michigan report is likely to show that its consumer sentiment index slipped to 97.9 in February from 98.5 last month. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET (1700 GMT).
Shares of Activision Blizzard rose 8.7 percent after the videogame maker reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and a $1 billion share buyback program.
Mead Johnson was up 5 percent after Reckitt Benckiser <RB.L> finalised a $16.6 billion deal to buy the infant formula maker.
Skechers USA was up 11.2 percent in light trading after its fourth-quarter revenue beat expectations.
Futures snapshot at 6:53 a.m. EDT:
Dow e-minis were up 21 points, or 0.1 percent, with 18,676 contracts changing hands.
S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.25 points, or 0.05 percent, with 81,582 contracts traded.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 5 points, or 0.1 percent, on volume of 16,878 contracts.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva