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* Futures up: Dow 0.17%, S&P 0.15%, Nasdaq 0.11%
By Arjun Panchadar
Dec 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures gained slightly
on Monday as an unexpected rise in Chinese manufacturing
activity assuaged investor concerns about a global economic
slowdown in the wake of a prolonged trade war between Washington
and Beijing.
China's factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in
three years, a private sector survey showed on Monday,
reinforcing upbeat government data released over the weekend.
The data follows a clutch of mixed headlines on U.S.-China trade
last week. Hopes of an imminent "phase one" trade deal and upbeat U.S.
economic data sent Wall Street to record highs early in the
week, but sentiment was dulled on Friday after China warned of a
retaliation to a U.S. law supporting protesters in Hong Kong.
Recent numbers from the United States have signalled that
the domestic economy continues to be resilient despite signs of
flagging global growth, a message that has been reinforced by
the Federal Reserve.
After cutting interest rates three times this year, Fed
Chair Jerome Powell has said that the central bank will only
intervene again if the economy takes a turn for the worse.
All eyes will now be on the ISM manufacturing activity
survey for November, due at 10 a.m. ET. The reading is expected
to rise to 49.2 from 48.3 in October.
Trade-sensitive chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices Inc
AMD.O and Micron Technology MU.O and industrial bellwether
Caterpillar Inc CAT.N were slightly higher in premarket
trading.
Retail stocks also remained in focus, with Cyber Monday
sales expected to hit a record following $11.6 billion in online
sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Walmart Inc WMT.N ,
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Target Corp TGT.N gained about
0.3%. At 7:33 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 48 points, or
0.17%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 4.75 points, or 0.15% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 9.25 points, or 0.11%.
Among other stocks, Roku Inc ROKU.O fell 6.6% as Morgan
Stanley downgraded the video streaming device maker's shares to
"underweight from "equal-weight". Splunk Inc SPLK.O rose 2.3% after Goldman Sachs upgraded
shares of the company to "buy" from "neutral".