*

Futures: Dow flat, S&P 500 up 0.62%, Nasdaq up 1.16%

*

Amazon ( AMZN ) jumps as cloud growth beats expectations

*

Apple ( AAPL ) forecasts upbeat holiday quarter iPhone sales,

shares rise

*

Warner Bros jumps after Reuters report of Netflix ( NFLX ) bid

(Updates prices, adds analyst comment)

By Pranav Kashyap and Nikhil Sharma

Oct 31 (Reuters) - S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures gained on

Friday, after upbeat forecasts from Apple ( AAPL ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) helped

soothe nerves a day after the indexes logged their steepest drop

in more than three weeks.

Amazon's ( AMZN ) shares surged 12.45% in premarket trading,

after the company forecast quarterly sales above estimates on

the back of its cloud revenue, which rose at the fastest clip in

nearly three years.

Apple ( AAPL ) rose 2.1%, as its forecast for iPhone sales

in the holiday quarter surpassed Wall Street expectations.

With all but Nvidia ( NVDA ) among the so-called

"Magnificent Seven", which makes up roughly 35% of the S&P 500's

weight, having reported quarterly results, investors had a fresh

look at how aggressively Big Tech was spending on artificial

intelligence.

The spending spree, however, has spooked markets.

"The worry is not that these companies are spending huge

amounts, but that we're not seeing the payout in the earnings

just yet, and that we may not see earnings catch up with the

huge amount of spending," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market

analyst at Swissquote Bank.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted

their steepest percentage declines since October 10, with the

benchmark index closing at its lowest in more than a week.

At 07:05 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 12 points,

or 0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 42.5 points, or 0.62%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 298.5 points, or 1.16%.

Of the 278 companies in the S&P 500 that have so far

reported earnings for the third quarter, 83.1% firms have beaten

analysts' expectations according to data compiled by LSEG.

MONTHLY GAINS DESPITE TEMPERED FED OUTLOOK

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was on track for its seventh

consecutive monthly advance, its longest streak since May 2017.

The S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow were headed for their sixth.

While expectations for faster Federal Reserve rate cuts

buoyed stocks earlier in the month, markets are still adjusting

to a shift in policy outlook after the central bank delivered a

widely expected quarter-point rate cut but signaled that another

move in December was not a "foregone conclusion".

The Fed's cautious language prompted traders to scale back

bets on a third cut this year, with futures now pricing a 67.9%

chance of a similar-sized move in December, down from nearly 90%

earlier in the week.

In other premarket moves, Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD )

shares rose 3.6% following a Reuters report that Netflix ( NFLX )

was actively exploring a bid for the company's studio

and streaming business.

Netflix ( NFLX ) added 2.5% as it unveiled plans for a 10-for-1 stock

split.

Western Digital ( WDC ) jumped 10% after forecasting

quarterly earnings above Wall Street estimates.

Strategy rose 5.9% after posting a profit in the

third quarter, compared with a loss a year earlier.