(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Futures up: Dow 0.30%, S&P 0.19%, Nasdaq 0.27%
By Arjun Panchadar
Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to
another session of gains on Monday, as a report out of China
added to optimism over a trade deal and the country's central
bank indicated willingness to step in to prop up a slowing
economy.
Washington and Beijing had held "constructive" trade talks
over the weekend, China's state media said, just days after
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow indicated that the
world's top two economies were close to a deal. Hopes of a resolution to the 16-month trade dispute that has
roiled financial markets and throttled global growth have
powered Wall Street's three indexes to multiple record highs
this month.
Chipmakers that have a large exposure to China rose in
premarket trading, with Nvidia Corp NVDA.O , Micron Technology
MU.O and Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD.O up between 0.4%
and 1%.
U.S.-listed Chinese stocks including Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd BABA.N and Baidu Inc BIDU.O rose between 0.5% and 1%.
Aiding sentiment was the unexpected cut by China to a
closely watched lending rate for the first time in more than
four years, as the central bank looks to counter a slowdown.
At 7:28 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 85 points, or
0.3%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 6 points, or 0.19% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 22.25 points, or 0.27%.
Attention now turns to minutes from the Federal Reserve's
latest policy meeting, where it cut interest rates for the third
time this year. The minutes are due to be released on Wednesday.
Also on the radar are earnings from U.S. retailers such as
Home Depot Inc HD.N , Kohl's Corp KSS.N and Target Corp
TGT.N following a stronger-than-expected corporate earnings
season to-date that has aided the rally in stocks.
Shares of HP Inc HPQ.N fell 2.1% after the company
rebuffed a $33.5 billion offer from Xerox Corp XRX.N and said
it was open to exploring a bid for the latter. Splunk Inc SPLK.O gained 3.4% after Morgan Stanley
upgraded the data analytics software maker's stock to
"overweight" from "equal-weight".