Wall Street futures rise on global stimulus efforts

[September 20, 2019]  By Ambar Warrick

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday as China became the third country to trim interest rates in the past few days, raising hopes that major central banks stand ready to blunt the impact of a prolonged Sino-U.S. trade war on global growth.

China cut its new one-year benchmark lending rate for the second month in a row on Friday, days after the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank reduced borrowing costs and left the door open for further monetary stimulus.

U.S. equities were set to end the week fairly unchanged after a rough start sparked by drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities that wiped out 5% of global oil supply, pushed up oil prices and fanned geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Hopes of additional stimulus and growing optimism about U.S.-China trade talks that began on Thursday calmed investor nerves later in the week, nudging the benchmark S&P 500 closer to its record high hit in July.

At 7:13 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 64 points, or 0.24%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were up 5.25 points, or 0.17% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 20 points, or 0.25%.

Friday marks the second day of trade talks, aiming to set the tone for high-level negotiations in October. A Chinese delegation will also visit American farm regions next week in an effort to build goodwill.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Shares of major chipmakers, which have been hit particularly hard by the trade war, rose in premarket trading. Advanced Micro Devices Inc <AMD.O> was up about 0.5%, while Micron Technology Inc <MU.O> rose 0.7%.

However, chipmaker Xilinx Inc <XLNX.O> dropped 3.3% after Chief Financial Officer Lorenzo Flores said he would step down, prompting Bank of America Merrill to downgrade its stock to "neutral".

Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> slipped 1.4% as Evercore ISI said recent data checks painted an uncertain picture of the streaming service provider's international subscriber growth.

Roku Inc <ROKU.O> dropped 5.1% after Pivotal Research started coverage of its shares with a "sell" rating.

(Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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