Wall Street was set to extend a rally on Friday begun 24 hours ago, after stock-index futures surged as China’s central bank cut interest rates and a clutch of heavyweight tech stocks rose in the wake of strong earnings. Futures for Dow Jones Industrial Average YMZ5, +0.84% jumped 163 points, or 0.9%, to 17,568, while those for the S&P 500 index ESZ5, +0.74% advanced 17.15 points, or 0.8%, to 2,070.25. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index NQZ5, +1.32% climbed 69.25 points, or 1.5%, to 4,621, as shares of Amazon.com, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. looked set to rally after earnings late Thursday. “The average between the three of these firms was an after-hours share price boost of over 10%, with Microsoft hitting a 15-year high,� said Alastair McCaig, senior market analyst at IG, in a note. The main indexes already were heading higher when just a couple of hours ahead of Wall Street’s open, the People’s Bank of China cut its one-year deposit rate by 25 basis points to 1.5%. The PBOC lowered its one-year lending rate by 25 basis points to 4.35%. Fueled by better-than-expected corporate results and hints of more easing measures from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, stocks finished sharply higher Thursday. The Dow industrials DJIA, +1.87% closed up 320.55 points, or 1.9%, at 17,489.16, the biggest point and percentage gain since Sept. 8. Thursday’s relief rally for Wall Street retraced about half the “panic attack� since China devalued the yuan, said Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, in a note. The S&P 500 SPX, +1.66% is now above its Aug. 25 closing low and 4.6% below its May 21 record high, he noted. With central banks in the spotlight, more attention will now turn to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting Oct. 27 and 28, and the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting on Oct. 30. Read: The best six months for stocks is about to begin Upbeat tech: Shares of Amazon AMZN, +9.65% jumped 10% in premarket after the e-commerce giant announced a surprise profit for the third quarter, and forecast an operating profit for the holiday quarter. Alphabet GOOGL, +10.26% formerly known as Google, announced its first-ever stock buyback plan, and will spend more than $5 billion buying back shares. Shares rallied 9% in premarket. Read: Are tech rebels Amazon and Alphabet finally growing up? Microsoft MSFT, +9.72% reported better-than-expected profit and revenue late Thursday, and shares were up 10% in premarket action. Also in the news Friday, Twitter Inc.’s TWTR, +1.85% chief executive officer Jack Dorsey, said he would give nearly $200 million of his own shares — 1% of the company — to the employee stock pool. Twitter shares rose 1.7%. American Airlines Group Inc. AAL, +3.79% said its profit increased by 80% fueled by cheaper fuel prices. Procter & Gamble Co. PG, +2.61% will report results later Friday. Other markets: The extra boost from China rate cuts added to already strong gains for the Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, +2.21% which was headed for its third straight weekly gain, and up 2.7% as the market coasted on the potential for more stimulus from the ECB. A flash reading of October manufacturing activity in the eurozone came in higher than expected. Closing ahead of that PBOC move, Asian markets also saw sharp gains across the board, with the Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +1.30% rising 1.2%. The Nikkei 225 index NIK, +2.11% closed up 2.1% as the Japanese yen USDJPY, +0.13% continued to weaken against the U.S. dollar. The euro EURUSD, -0.5401% also remained on a weaker footing against the U.S. currency. Gold prices GCZ5, +0.93% jumped 12.4% to $1,178.40 an ounce, while crude oil CLZ5, +0.29% rose 25 cents in the wake of the China interest-rate decision.

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