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Nike set for record open after stellar quarter
Travel-related stocks rebound
Tesla tumbles as "Battery Day" disappoints
All eyes on flash PMI readings later in the day
Futures: Dow up 0.71%, S&P adds 0.30%, Nasdaq off 0.13%
Adds comments; updates prices
By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Devik Jain
Sept 23 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow were set for a higher open on Wednesday ahead of data that would throw light on the pace of an economic recovery from a coronavirus-driven recession, while Nike was set for a record open after a stunning quarterly earnings report.
Shares of the world's largest athletic shoe maker NKE.N surged 12.4% in premarket trading as its digital sales, especially in North America, helped offset a fall in sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
The Dow constituent was set to drive the blue-chip index .DJI higher for a second straight day, clawing back more of the sharp declines from Monday that were driven by fears of another round of lockdowns to contain a global surge in COVID-19 cases.
Doubts about more U.S. fiscal stimulus and growing political uncertainty in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential elections have also kept investors from making big stock market bets.
"It's just this constant push-and-pull in the face of uncertainty where we're waiting on information about the election, earnings and stimulus," said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
The three main U.S. stock indexes slumped earlier this month as investors sold off heavyweight technology-related shares that had dominated a rally since March.
Wall Street favorites including Facebook Inc FB.O, Apple Inc AAPL.O, Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O, Netflix Inc NFLX.O and Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O slipped again in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O, another Wall Street darling this year, tumbled 5.4% after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk failed to impress with his promise to cut electric vehicle costs at the much awaited "Battery Day" event on Tuesday.
At 8:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 193 points, or 0.71%, while S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 9.75 points, or 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1, on the other hand, were down 14.5 points, or 0.13%.
"When the Dow outperforms the Nasdaq, it's telling you that the market believes the reopening (and) vaccines are on track, and that's going to help the type of large industrial stocks," Hayes said.
After data in Europe showed euro zone business growth ground to a halt this month, all eyes will be on flash readings of a survey on U.S. business activity due later in the day.
Oracle Corp ORCL.N headed lower after a report by a state-backed Chinese newspaper said Beijing was unlikely to approve a proposed deal by the software maker and Walmart WMT.N for ByteDance's TikTok.
Travel-related stocks including Delta Air Lines DAL.N, American Airlines AAL.O, Carnival Corp CCL.N and Royal Caribbean Cruises RCL.N rose between 1.2% and 2% after being hammered earlier this week.
(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
((Sagarika.Jaisinghani@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 6182 2256;))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
