Stock futures jump after China’s positive comments on trade

By: Yasin R.

US stock index futures jumped about 1 percent Thursday morning as China sounded upbeat about its trade talks with the United States, calming investors unnerved by the prospect of a recession.

China’s commerce ministry said both sides are discussing the next round of talks scheduled in September and hoped American officials could cancel the planned additional tariffs to avoid an escalation, boosting sentiment and driving global stocks higher.

Trade-sensitive stocks such as Apple and Boeing rose more than a percent in pre-market trading.

Chipmakers, which draw a large part of their revenue from China, also gained, with Intel, Qualcomm, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia up between 0.9 percent and 2.3 percent.

The Trump administration Wednesday made official its additional 5 percent tariff on $300 billion in Chinese imports and set collection dates of Sept. 1 and Dec. 15, prompting several hundred US companies to warn of price hikes.

Shares of Best Buy, the biggest US consumer electronics retailer, dropped 5.8 percent, after forecasting annual same-store sales below analysts’ estimates, citing the new US tariffs set to be imposed on Chinese imports.

Wall Street’s main indexes are on course to record their worst monthly performance since a selloff in May, spurred by worries that tit-for-tat tariffs will drive the global economy into a recession. Those fears came to the fore after the US yield curve inversion deepened earlier this week to levels not seen since 2007.