* Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) up slightly after profit beat
* ARM surges on SoftBank deal; U.S. chip stocks rise
* Futures up: Dow 32 pts, S&P 5.75 pts, Nasdaq 10.5 pts (Adds details, comments, updates prices)
By Yashaswini Swamynathan
July 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday, setting the stage for the Dow and S&P 500 to hit fresh highs, as U.S. corporate reports continue to top expectations.
Equity futures, which dipped after the close on Friday, shrugged off the impact of an attempted coup in Turkey.
With the S&P and Dow hitting record intraday highs almost every day last week, investors will assess the quality of second-quarter earnings to justify stock valuations. markets are going to be driven by earnings reports while geopolitical problems take a backseat for now," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.
Bank of America BAC.N , the No.2 U.S. bank by assets, and fellow S&P component Hasbro HAS.O posted better than expected profit for the second quarter, mirroring the results of the few companies, including big banks, that reported last week.
"The handful of results that we have got have been okay and earnings have mostly beaten expectations. It shows that corporations are still making money, and that's what counts," Cardillo said.
Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 32 points, or 0.17 percent at 8:27 a.m. ET (1227 GMT), with 28,500 contracts changing hands.
S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 5.75 points, or 0.27 percent, with 186,056 contracts traded.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 10.5 points, or 0.23 percent, on volume of 25,766 contracts.
Bank of America BAC.N shares rose nearly 1 percent to $13.79 premarket. Hasbro was off 0.6 percent. chip designer ARM's ARMH.O U.S.-listed shares surged 43.5 percent to $67.64 premarket, after Japan's SoftBank agreed to buy the company for $32.2 billion. host of U.S. chip stock such as Micron MU.O , Nvidia NVDA.O and Broadcom AVGO.O were up between 1.0 and 1.5 percent.
Earnings of S&P 500 companies are now estimated to have declined 4.7 percent in the second quarter, less than the 5 percent drop estimated earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data.
That adds to hopes that earnings contraction bottomed out in the previous quarter, a view that could be reinforced when IBM (NYSE:IBM) IBM.N , Yahoo YHOO.O and Netflix NFLX.O report results after markets close.
Gold prices XAU= have fallen, while the yen was lower, indicating investors' favor for more riskier assets has been growing after weeks of uncertainty. Low Treasury yields in recent weeks have also helped steer investors to equities.