(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures jumped on Wednesday after four straight sessions of losses on Wall Street as oil prices eased and investors snapped up stocks hammered by concerns over Western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures led the rebound, rising 2.06%. Megacap growth stocks Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms and Tesla Inc all gained more than 2% each in premarket trading.
Big banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America, rose between 2.3% and 2.7%.
Travel and leisure stocks surged the most. Carnival Corp and United Airlines Holdings climbed 6.8% and 4.4%, respectively, after plummeting sharply this week as soaring oil prices threatened a nascent recovery.
Meanwhile, Russia said it would achieve its goal of ensuring Ukraine’s neutral status and would prefer to do that through talks.
Energy shares tumbled after a rally on the back of oil surging past $130 a barrel, with the S&P 500 energy sector gaining nearly 3% this week. Oil slipped towards $125 in volatile trading on Wednesday as investors assessed the U.S. ban of Russian oil imports. [O/R]
At 6:09 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 490 points, or 1.5%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 70 points, or 1.68%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 272.75 points, or 2.06%.
The CBOE volatility index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, fell for the second straight session.
(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
