LDN - Business

Futures jump on temporary trade detente

[December 03, 2018] By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures jumped around 2 percent on Monday, set to add to last week's strong gains, after the United States and China declared a temporary trade truce.

Strong gains in Apple and other technology stocks pushed Nasdaq futures up more than 2 percent, while S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> touched a near 1-month high. Gains in Dow futures set the blue-chip index up for a more than 400-point gain at the open.

Washington and Beijing agreed to a 90-day trade ceasefire during the G20 summit in Argentina on Saturday and U.S. President Donald Trump said China has agreed to "reduce and remove" tariffs below the 40 percent level that the country is currently charging on U.S.-made vehicles.

However, the White House also said that the existing 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods would be lifted to 25 percent if no deal was reached within 90 days.

The trade optimism spilt over to Apple Inc <AAPL.O>, which gained 3.4 percent in premarket trading.

Trump had said last week that the next round of tariffs could also be placed on the company's iPhones, as part of the $267 billion list of goods not yet hit by tariffs.

Trade-sensitive Caterpillar Inc <CAT.N>, Boeing Co <BA.N> gained over 4 percent, while U.S. carmakers, General Motors Co <GM.N>, Ford Motor Co <F.N> and Tesla Inc <TSLA.O> rose between 3.6 percent and 4.2 percent.

Shares of energy companies also rose as oil prices surged, helping lift Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> up by 2.4 percent and Chevron Corp <CVX.N> by 2.5 percent. [O/R]

"This trade news, although somewhat conflicting was in line with our expectations and is likely to induce a year-end rally of more than 5 percent," Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities said in a client note.

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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

At 7:27 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 452 points, or 1.77 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 40.5 points, or 1.47 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 157.25 points, or 2.26 percent.

After being hammered for much of the past two months, Wall Street posted its biggest weekly gain last week in nearly seven years on hopes that a detente could be reached over trade between the world's top two economies and futures added to gains from Sunday.

Shares of U.S. chipmakers, which have the highest revenue exposure to China, rose led by a 4.8 percent gain in Micron Technology Inc <MU.O> and a 5 percent rise in Advanced Micro Devices Inc <AMD.O>.

U.S.-listed Chinese stocks rallied, with heavyweights Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd <BABA.N>, JD.com Inc <JD.O> and Baidu Inc <BIDU.O> all up above 4.5 percent.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) report due at 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) is expected to show its index of national factory activity fell to a reading of 57.6 last month from 57.7 in October.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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