US pre-open: Futures point to early gains as trade talks continue
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Friday 20 Sep 2019
(Sharecast News) - US stock futures pointed to a firmer open on Friday as trade negotiators from Beijing and Washington resumed face-to-face talks for the first time in around two months.
As of 1230 BST, Dow futures were up 0.17%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures had the indices opening 0.16% and 0.24% higher, respectively.
Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Thursday as investors continued to react to the Federal Reserve's latest policy announcement and got hopeful about trade talks between US and Chinese officials in Washington that were expected to pave the path for high-level negations between the pair in November.
Sentiment was buoyed by news that the US was temporarily exempting more than 400 Chinese products from tariffs imposed back in 2018.
The office of the US Trade Representative published the list, which excluded the likes of Christmas tree lights, plastic straws, dog leashes and printed circuit boards - all of which were part of the original $250bn worth of Chinese goods that the US hit with tariffs last year.
Spreadex analyst Connor Cambell said: "It's not shaping up to be the most thrilling session, in what has turned into a rather damp squib second half of the week, the markets struggling for direction following the Fed's mixed bag statement on Wednesday evening."
St Louis Fed President James Bullard issued a statement earlier in the day detailing his reasons for dissenting at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting earlier in the week, saying he was in favour of a more aggressive half-point cut given signs that the US economy was slowing down.
"It is prudent risk management, in my view, to cut the policy rate aggressively now and then later increase it should the downside risk not materialise," he said.
While there was no economic data scheduled for release on Friday, investors will be keeping a keen eye on speeches from Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and New York Fed President John Williams.
No major US companies were slated to report.
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