* Traders pin recovery hopes on U.S. stimulus package
* Cruise liners, airlines lead recovery in stocks
* Oracle gains as results top estimates
* Futures up: Dow 5.26%, S&P 5.10%, Nasdaq 5.65%
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By Sanjana Shivdas
March 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a
strong bounce at the open on Friday, rising 5% on hopes of a
U.S. stimulus package to cushion the blow of the coronavirus
pandemic, a day after Wall Street racked up its worst losses
since "Black Monday" in 1987.
The Dow and S&P 500 indexes sank almost 10% on Thursday,
wiping more than $2 trillion off the value of the S&P and
plunging global equities into a bear market on fears the world
was sliding into recession.
After another sharp selloff in Asia early on Friday,
sentiment stabilised as policymakers stepped in to ease a
liquidity squeeze and U.S. Democrats and Republicans signalled
they could soon agree on support measures. The market is still down around 25% from mid-February peaks,
however, and traders expect more aggressive easing by the
Federal Reserve next week following the offer of $1.5 trillion
in the form of short-term loans. "What we're headed for is a market that should begin to
settle down (with) less high volatility percentage declines,"
said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities in New York.
"Investors are now expecting the government to get the
economic plan in place and get it into law."
Shares of major U.S. banks including Bank of America Corp
BAC.N , Citigroup Inc C.N and JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N
rose between 4% and 5%, tracking Treasury yields higher. US/
Cruise liners Carnival Corp CCL.N , Royal Caribbean RCL.N
and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings NCLH.N were also set to
advance after a brutal selloff this week.
United Airlines UAL.O was up 8.6%, a day after losing a
quarter of its value as the travel disruptions forced it to draw
down $2 billion of existing cash reserves.
U.S. energy firms Exxon Mobil XOM.N and Chevron Corp
CVX.N also rose more than 4%, tracking gains in oil prices.
At 8:03 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 1,110 points,
or 5.26%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 126 points, or 5.1%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 407.5 points, or 5.65%.
Among individual movers, software company Oracle Corp
ORCL.N jumped 9.1% after topping quarterly profit and revenue
expectations and flagging a "minimal impact" from the virus
outbreak on fourth-quarter revenue. Gap Inc GPS.N climbed 6.3% as it forecast 2020 profit
above market expectations. It also flagged a $100 million sales
hit in Asia and Europe from the coronavirus outbreak.
(Additional reporting my Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Writing by
Sagarika Jaisinghani; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)