Futures climb as U.S.-China trade worries ease

[April 05, 2018]   By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks on Thursday looked set to build on a strong recovery in the previous session as fears about a trade war between the United States and China cooled on signs that the two countries were open to negotiations on tariffs.

Technology stocks, which have taken a beating in the past three weeks, were higher in premarket trading.

Facebook <FB.O>, Amazon <AMZN.O>, Alphabet <GOOGL.O>, Netflix <NFLX.O> - collectively known as the "FANG" group - were up between 1 percent and 3 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> dropped about 500 points on Wednesday after a proposed U.S. tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods prompted swift retaliation from Beijing. China hit back with equal measure on U.S. goods such as soybeans, autos, chemicals and some types of aircraft.

Shares of big U.S. manufacturers, grain traders and chipmakers were hit hard until mid-day.

But the sentiment reversed after President Donald Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was involved in a "negotiation" with China rather than a trade war.

Also, the effective date of China's move depended on when the U.S. action took effect, providing room for maneuver.

U.S. economic data published on Wednesday underscored the prevailing bullish view on the economy. Private payrolls increased solidly in March as hiring rose across the board, boding well for Friday's jobs data.

At 7:10 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 35 points, or 0.14 percent, with 57,520 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 9 points, or 0.34 percent, with 184,279 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 41 points, or 0.62 percent, on volume of 66,231 contracts.

Facebook rose 2.5 percent after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company had not seen "any meaningful impact" on usage or ad sales since the scandal.

Wells Fargo <WFC.N> rose 1 percent after UBS upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral".

Advanced Micro Devices <AMD.O> jumped 2.8 percent after Stifel upgraded to "buy", while Micron Technology <MU.O> fell 0.9 percent after UBS started with a "sell" rating.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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