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Futures: Dow down 1.4%, S&P 500 up 0.5%, Nasdaq up 0.86%
US-Japan tariff talks on radar
TSMC gains after bullish forecast
Insurers slump after UnitedHealth results
Updates after economic data
By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal
April 17 (Reuters) - Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pointed to a higher open on Thursday, with indexes set to regain some ground on the week's final trading day, while UnitedHealth's shares slumped following a forecast cut by the insurer.
After steep losses on Wednesday, investors found some optimism from U.S. President Donald Trump's comments on "big progress" in trade talks with Japan.
Focus will be on negotiation talks with dozens of countries over the coming weeks for more clarity on the size and scope of tariffs on individual nations and sectors.
Meanwhile, UnitedHealth UNH.N plummeted 20% in premarket trading after lowering its annual profit forecast on expectations of high medical costs for the remainder of the year.
Futures tied to the blue-chip Dow tumbled after the company's results.
Other health insurers slumped, with CVS Health CVS.N down 7.4% and Humana HUM.N falling 13.5%.
At 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 558 points, or 1.4%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 28.25 points, or 0.53%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 158 points, or 0.86%.
S&P 500 futures ticked higher after data showed weekly jobless claims fell to 215,000 versus forecasts of 225,000, suggesting the labor market remains stable.
"The job market is still strong," said Ross Bramwell, market strategist at Homrich Berg, though adding markets will continue to be volatile.
"We don't know how far Trump will let the market fall to achieve his endgame, until we have some clarity I would expect markets to continue to be very choppy."
Indexes had extended losses on Wednesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Trump's trade policies risked pushing inflation higher while weakening economic growth, adding policymakers needed more clarity before adjusting policy.
Trump hit back on Thursday, saying in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that Powell's termination "cannot come fast enough" and calling for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates.
Traders have scaled back bets of a May rate cut to 13.6%, according to CME's FedWatch. The probability of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months has jumped, according to economists polled by Reuters.
Ahead of the long weekend, all three major Wall Street indexes are on track for weekly losses, with the S&P 500 .SPX on pace to lose about 1.6% after its best week since November 2023. The week before that was its worst since 2020's pandemic-driven selloff.
Investors continue to expect volatile markets, with the CBOE Volatility index .VIX down from last week's highs but sharply above its 50-day moving average.
Among other stocks, upbeat results from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) 2330.TW helped ease some gloom for the chip sector after Nvidia NVDA.O flagged steep costs from new U.S. export curbs.
TSMC's U.S.-listed shares TSM.N jumped 3.1%, while Nvidia edged up 0.3% after falling nearly 7% on Wednesday.
Eli Lilly's LLY.N shares jumped 11.8% after the company said its experimental pill, orforglipron, led to weight loss of nearly 8% and lowered blood sugar in type 2 diabetes patients.
Netflix NFLX.O shares rose 1.4%, with the streaming company scheduled to report results after the closing bell.
(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Shounak Dasgupta)
((LisaPauline.Mattackal@thomsonreuters.com))
