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Weekly jobless claims at 218,000

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Accenture ( ACN ) gains after upbeat annual revenue forecast

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Miners jump after report of Chinese stimulus

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Futures up: Dow 0.49%, S&P 500 0.83%, Nasdaq 1.55%

(Updated at 8:43 a.m. ET/1243 GMT)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Sept 26 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes were set to open higher on

Thursday as Micron's upbeat forecast revived the frenzy around

artificial intelligence, while investors assessed a labor market

report and awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome

Powell.

Micron Technology ( MU ) jumped 17% in premarket trading

after the memory chip maker forecast higher-than-expected

first-quarter revenue, underscoring that demand for memory chips

used in AI computing was robust.

The optimism lifted other chip stocks, with Nvidia ( NVDA )

rising 2.4%, Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) advancing 2.7% and

Broadcom ( AVGO ) adding 1.9%.

"Optimism surrounding AI had taken a bit of a backseat

in recent weeks. The strong revenue guidance from Micron has

revived the AI trade a little bit, reminding the market that AI

is still relevant," said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst

at City Index.

Investors also scrutinized a Labor Department report that

showed jobless claims came in at 218,000 for the week ended

Sept. 21, below estimates of 225,000.

"Better employment numbers mean that the Fed will only

cut by 25 bps at the next meeting ... on the one hand we won't

get a bigger rate cut, but on the other hand, it indicates the

economy is strong, which is good news," said Melissa Brown,

managing director of investment decision research at SimCorp.

Separately, the final reading of gross domestic product

(GDP) confirmed that the economy grew 3% in the second quarter.

Traders now expect the Fed to deliver another outsized

cut in November with a 58.2% chance, up from 38.8% a week ago,

as per the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Dow E-minis were up 208 points, or 0.49%, S&P

500 E-minis were up 47.75 points, or 0.83% and Nasdaq

100 E-minis were up 312 points, or 1.55%.

Futures tracking the Russell 2000 small caps index

added 1%.

The benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow have

hit multiple record highs since the start of this year and the

tech-laden Nasdaq is about 3% away from its own

milestone. Optimism around AI and expectations of lower interest

rates have led markets to rally this year.

Late on Wednesday, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler said she

"strongly supported" the central bank's decision to kick off

monetary policy easing with a rare half a percentage point cut

last week, as part of an emerging focus on the job market.

The spotlight will now be on Powell's remarks at a New York

conference expected before the market opens for clues on the

health of the economy and the outlook for interest rate cuts.

A host of Fed officials, including John Williams, Michael

Barr, Michelle Bowman and Neel Kashkari are also scheduled to

speak later in the day.

Among others, Meta rose 1.6%, a day after unveiling

an entry-level version of its Quest line of mixed-reality

headsets. Alphabet added 1.2%, Tesla climbed

1.7% and Microsoft ( MSFT ) was up 0.6%.

Copper miners such as Freeport-McMoRan ( FCX ) rose 5.6%,

while lithium miners such as Albemarle climbed 4.4% and

Arcadium added 3.5% after a report said China plans to

issue special sovereign bonds worth about 2 trillion yuan as

part of a fresh fiscal stimulus.

Southwest Airlines ( LUV ) climbed 6.5% after the carrier

raised its third-quarter revenue forecast, while Accenture ( ACN )

gained 5.3% after the IT services provider forecast

annual revenue above estimates.