Wall Street set to open higher on trade optimism

REUTERS: U.S. stock index futures were set to climb higher on Tuesday, coming off a series of volatile sessions, as investors pondered the latest salvo in the U.S.-China trade war and earnings reports from blue-chip companies.

President Donald Trump said he believes “a great deal” on trade can be struck with China, but warned he has billions of dollars worth of new tariffs ready if a deal is not possible.

The comments came after a Bloomberg report that Washington was preparing to announce tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports by early December if talks next month between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping failed.

The report sparked a wild ride on Wall Street on Monday, with the blue-chip Dow Industrials falling more than 900 points from its high and the benchmark S&P 500 closing within a whisker of confirming correction territory.

“Futures are up because of perceived optimism surrounding Trump’s comment, but we have a busy earnings week so there are expectations of continued fast-paced erratic trading with no clear direction,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

“Right now the market is hungry for stability and some calming activity, which is temporarily being offered by the latest positive news on trade.”

Tariffs and rising costs have been among the factors that have led to a slew of disappointing forecasts from major industrials, chipmakers and other sectors, adding worries about slowing corporate growth to fears of faltering global growth.

Coca-Cola Co shares climbed 0.1 percent premarket after beating quarterly sales estimates as more consumers reached for new versions of its sugar-free sodas and sparkling waters. PepsiCo Inc inched up 0.4 percent.

But, Pfizer Inc fell 3.4 percent after cutting the upper end of its full-year revenue forecast, citing a stronger dollar and lower revenue from its sterile-injections business.

At 8:41 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 74 points, or 0.3 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were up 10 points, or 0.38 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 11.75 points, or 0.17 percent.

Although healthy S&P 500 results have pushed up third-quarter profit growth estimates to 25.3 percent from 21.8 percent in the past 11 days, according to Refinitiv data, concerns remain about the extent of a slowdown in earnings growth next year.

Under Armour Inc jumped 9.7 percent after the sportswear maker raised its full-year profit forecast and posted better-than-expected quarterly results, aided by higher overseas sales and lower expenses.

Bigger rival Nike Inc also edged up 0.4 percent.

In a boost for the beleaguered chip industry, chip gear maker KLA-Tencor Corp rose 5.7 percent after strong results and forecast.

General Electric Co gave up earlier gains to trade 3.3 percent lower after the U.S. securities regulator expanded a probe of GE’s accounting to include a US$22.8 billion writedown of goodwill from its power division.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)