Wall Street eyes higher open as tech-related stocks gain

By Devik Jain and Boleslaw Lasocki

(Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to open higher on Thursday as easing government bond yields lifted some high-growth stocks, while investors awaited business activity data and Federal Reserve Chair's testimony to Congress.

Recession fears have gripped Wall Street in recent weeks on concerns that economic growth and corporate profits could come under pressure from rising interest rates, the Ukraine war and the prolonged supply chain problems.

The S&P 500 last week confirmed a bear market, clocking a more than 20% loss from its January closing peak as the Fed rolled out its largest interest rate hike in nearly three decades. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has shed more than 31% from its November peak.

"This is a bit of a relief rally... you could call it a dead cat bounce or a bear trap. There is more room to the downside and much more downside risk," said Greg Swenson, founding partner of Brigg Macadam.

In the previous session, U.S. stock indexes ended with slim losses after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is not trying to engineer a recession but is committed to bringing prices under control even if doing so risks an economic downturn.

His second day of testimony before the House Financial Services Committee is due at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT). Money markets are pricing in 75 basis point increase in rates next month, followed by a 50 basis point rise in September.

The S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI)'s Composite PMI survey for June will be published after the market opens. Similar surveys from earlier in the day showed manufacturing growth is slowing from Asia to Europe as surging inflation dents global economic outlook.

Meanwhile, the Fed is set to release the results of its 2022 stress test, which will assess how much capital banks would need to withstand a severe economic downturn. Shares of big banks edged higher in premarket trading.

At 8:39 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 51 points, or 0.17%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 12.5 points, or 0.33%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 53.75 points, or 0.46%.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc rose 0.3% and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) Corp 0.7% to lead gains among the growth and technology companies as Treasury yields pulled back. [US/]

Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY) gained 3.6% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) Inc bought another 9.6 million shares of the oil company, boosting its stake to 16.3%.

Snowflake Inc climbed 5.7% after J.P. Morgan upgraded the cloud software company's stock to "overweight" from "neutral".

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Plc fell 3.1% after the IT services company forecast weak fourth-quarter revenue and tempered its fiscal 2022 profit outlook due to the impact of a stronger dollar.