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* Futures up: Dow 0.78%, S&P 0.60%, Nasdaq 0.84%
By Akanksha Rana
Aug 26 (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 (NYSE:BA) 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.
However, a batch of strong retail earnings from those
including Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Inc WMT.N and Target Corp (NYSE:TGT) 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 (NYSE:BMY)
BMY.N to go ahead with its $74 billion deal for Celgene.
Shares of Bristol-Myers jumped 5.7%.