Nasdaq futures rise after bank rout, more economic data on tap

(Reuters) – Nasdaq futures rose on Thursday as the Swiss central bank‘s lifeline for Credit Suisse calmed global markets, with investors awaiting more economic data to assess the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening path.

U.S.-listed shares of Credit Suisse rose 3% in premarket trading, after the bank secured a credit line of up to $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank to shore up liquidity and investor confidence, which had nosedived after the lenders shares slumped on Wednesday.

Wall Streets main indexes were under severe selling pressure in the previous session after troubles at Credit Suisse reignited fears of a banking crisis, which had eased following emergency measures by U.S. authorities after the collapse of SVB Financial and Signature Bank.

“We believe fears about bank solvency are overdone, and most banks retain strong liquidity positions,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note.

“But tight funding conditions can still pose a challenge for a small number of individual banks, and sector profitability faces headwinds more broadly.”

U.S. big banks edged higher in premarket trading after a downbeat session on Wednesday, with JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup and Bank of America Corp adding around 1% each.

Shares of regional banks Western Alliance Bancorp, PacWest Bancorp, and bank and brokerage Charles Schwab Corp were up 8.2%, 1.3% and 2.85% respectively.

Yields on the 2-year and the 10-year Treasury notes rose after steep declines on Wednesday, with the money markets now seeing 69% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike by the Fed on March 22..

A slew of economic data, including February housing start numbers and weekly jobless claims, will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, which may help investors in gauging the strength of the American economy.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia will also issue Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey for March.

On Wednesday, data showed U.S. retail sales fell 0.4% last month after 3.2% growth in January, while a separate report showed U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fell in February, which fueled hopes that the Fed might slow its rate hikes.

At 5:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 46 points, or 0.14%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.04%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 37.5 points, or 0.3%.

(Reporting by Shubham Batra and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)