(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click  LIVE/  or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
    * Futures up: Dow 0.46%, S&P 0.72%, Nasdaq 1.09% 

    June 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on
Thursday as easing government bond yields lifted high-valued
growth stocks, while investors awaited business activity data
and Federal Reserve Chair's testimony to Congress.
    Recession fears have gripped Wall Street on concerns that
economic growth and corporate profits could come under pressure
from rising interest rates, the Ukraine war and the prolonged
supply chain problems.
    The S&P 500  .SPX  last week confirmed a bear market,
clocking a more than 20% loss from its January closing peak as
the Fed pushed ahead with its largest interest rate hike in
nearly three decades. The tech-heavy Nasdaq  .IXIC  has shed
more than 31% from its November peak. 
    In the previous session, U.S. stock indexes ended with slim
losses after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is
not trying to engineer a recession but is fully committed to
bringing prices under control even if doing so risks an economic
downturn.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Y917N
    His second day of testimony before the House Financial
Services Committee is at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT). Money markets
are pricing in 75 basis point (bps) increase in rates next
month, followed by a 50 basis point rise in September.
 FEDWATCH 
    Weekly jobless claims report is due at 08:30 a.m. ET. The
S&P Global's Composite PMI survey for June will be published
after the market opens. Similar surveys from earlier in the day
showed manufacturing growth is slowing from Asia to Europe as
surging inflation dents global economic outlook.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YA0J8
    Meanwhile, the Fed is set to release the results of its 2022
stress test, which will assess how much capital banks would need
to withstand a severe economic downturn. Shares of big banks
slipped in premarket trading, with Wells Fargo  WFC.N  down
0.2%.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Y21R5
    At 06:54 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis  1YMcv1  were up 141 points,
or 0.46%, S&P 500 e-minis  EScv1  were up 27.25 points, or
0.72%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis  NQcv1  were up 125.5 points, or
1.09%.
    Tesla Inc  TSLA.O  rose 2% and Nvidia Corp  NVDA.O  1.5% to
lead gains among the growth and technology companies as Treasury
yields pulled back.  US/ 
    Occidental Petroleum Corp  OXY.N  gained 3.3% after Warren
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc  BRKa.N  bought another 9.6
million shares of the oil company, boosting its stake to 16.3%.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YA03I
    Snowflake Inc  SNOW.N  climbed 5.1% after J.P. Morgan
upgraded the cloud software company's stock to "overweight" from
"neutral".  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2YA1XD

 (Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
 ((Devik.Jain@thomsonreuters.com;))