U.S. futures recover after Trump eases stance on China trade

[August 26, 2019]  By Akanksha Rana

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Monday as U.S. President Donald Trump moved to ease trade tensions with China, soothing investor nerves after intense feuding between the world's top two economies last week sent stocks into a tailspin.

The benchmark S&P 500 index <.SPX> logged its worst run of weekly losses on Friday since a selloff in late May after both sides threatened to slap more tariffs on each other's goods and Trump told U.S. companies to look for alternatives to doing business with China.

In a change of stance, Trump said on Monday that Beijing had contacted Washington overnight to say it wanted to return to the negotiating table.

Shares of tariff-sensitive stocks including Apple Inc <AAPL.O> and Boeing Co <BA.N> rose more than 1.5% each in premarket trading.

Chipmakers, which are heavily reliant on China for their revenue, also rose in early trading. Intel Corp <INTC.O>, Qualcomm Inc <QCOM.O>, Advanced Micro Devices Inc <AMD.O> and Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> were up between 1.4% and 3%.

Worries about the global economy slipping into recession and uncertainty over the pace of U.S. interest rate cuts have made investors nervous about how far the longest cycle of U.S. expansion can continue. The S&P 500 closed about 6% off its record high on Friday.
 

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell in New York, U.S., August 23, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

However, a batch of strong retail earnings from those including Walmart Inc <WMT.N> and Target Corp <TGT.N> in the past weeks have reinforced confidence in domestic growth.

Data from the Commerce Department, due at 08:30 a.m. ET (12:30 p.m. GMT), is likely to show overall orders for durable goods rose 1.2% in July, after increasing 1.9% in June.

At 7:29 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 200 points, or 0.78%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were up 17 points, or 0.6% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 62.75 points, or 0.84%.

Among other stocks, Celgene Corp <CELG.O> rose 3.7% after Amgen Inc <AMGN.O> said on Monday it would buy the company's psoriasis drug Otezla, clearing the way for Bristol-Myers Squibb <BMY.N> to go ahead with its $74 billion deal for Celgene. Shares of Bristol-Myers jumped 5.7%.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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