Futures climb on U.S.-China trade talk optimism

[August 20, 2018] By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday on hopes that planned trade talks between the United States and China would help resolve escalating trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., August 17, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Lower-level trade talks will be held on Aug. 22 and 23, according to the Wall Street Journal, just as new U.S. tariffs on $16 billion of Chinese goods take effect, along with Beijing's retaliatory tariffs on an equal amount of U.S. goods.

Reports of the talks on Friday helped U.S. stocks close higher, with shares of trade-sensitive industrial companies leading the gains.

On Monday, shares of Boeing <BA.N> rose 0.7 percent and Caterpillar <CAT.N> 0.1 percent in light premarket trading.

Nineteen of the 25 most actively traded U.S. stocks were higher, including shares of a handful of chipmakers.

At 7:05 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 60 points, or 0.23 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 5.75 points, or 0.2 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 25.5 points, or 0.35 percent.

Tesla <TSLA.O> shares dropped 2.8 percent after Reuters reported that PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that Chief Executive Elon Musk has said could help fund a $72 billion go-private deal of the company, is in talks to invest in aspiring Tesla rival Lucid Motors Inc.

Nike <NKE.N> was up 1.7 percent in light trading after two brokerages raised their ratings on the stock.

SodaStream's U.S.-listed shares <SODA.O> jumped 10.1 percent after PepsiCo <PEP.O> said it would buy the Israel-based household drink-machine maker for $3.2 billion. PepsiCo's shares were flat.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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