US stock futures flat after Wall St drops on Trump tariffs, soft jobs data
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* Futures up: Dow 0.24%, S&P 0.17%, Nasdaq 0.25%
By Ambar Warrick
Sept 20 (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. 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.