June 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street's major indexes were poised for a higher open on Thursday with technology shares leading gains as optimism about a Middle East peace deal offset worries about a hawkish Federal Reserve under new Chair Kevin Warsh.
Intel's (INTC.O), shares rose 8.8% in premarket trading after U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple (AAPL.O), had agreed to work with the company to design and manufacture its chips in the United States.
Other chip stocks also moved higher. Nvidia (NVDA.O), rose 1.4%, while Micron (MU.O), and Marvell Technology (MRVL.O), added 5% and 5.9%, respectively. All three major indexes sank in the previous session as investors priced in the likelihood of more Federal Reserve rate hikes, after Warsh underscored the need to curb inflation and other policymakers signaled higher borrowing costs ahead. It's the U.S.-Iran deal signing that "seems to be usurping any negative sentiment brought about by a more hawkish Fed yesterday," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
"Energy prices continue to trade lower. The potential for an end to the war in Iran would certainly be a significant positive and might even help bring down inflation over the long term." Markets are currently pricing in a 50% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike in September, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool, higher than 27% priced in on Wednesday. Oil prices slid to a more than three-month low, keeping alive hopes that inflation could be tamed without hiking interest rates.
Meanwhile, the United States and Iran released the text of an interim agreement their presidents have signed to end the war. It extends the April ceasefire by another 60 days to allow the two sides to reach a final deal.
At 08:37 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 228 points, or 0.44%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 63.75 points, or 0.85%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 475.25 points, or 1.6%.
Markets have regained ground from a slump in early June, with a resilient economy, a broadening rally beyond tech shares and optimism surrounding a U.S.-Iran deal boosting sentiment.
Weekly jobless claims data showed the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell last week as layoffs remained low.
The Nasdaq (.IXIC), and the blue-chip Dow (.DJI), were on track to end higher for a second consecutive week before Friday's Juneteenth holiday. Thursday also marks the once-in-a-quarter simultaneous expiry of derivatives contracts tied to stocks, index options and futures, also known as "triple witching", which can boost trading volume and aggravate volatility.
Among other early movers, Rumble (RUM.O), jumped 15.4% after rebranding to RUM Group and closing its acquisition of German AI cloud company Northern Data.
Kroger (KR.N), dropped 7.8% after the grocer reported a lower-than-expected profit for the first quarter and kept its annual forecasts unchanged.
Shares of Accenture (ACN.N), tumbled 16% after the company trimmed the top end of its annual revenue forecast. It also announced plans to acquire a majority stake in Dragos and fully buy runZero and NetRise in a combined deal valued at $4.18 billion.
Reporting by Twesha Dikshit and Joel Jose; Editing by Pooja Desai and Devika Syamnath
