Investing.com – U.S. futures rose on Friday as Chinese President Xi Jinping said trade talks between the two biggest economies in the world would continue in Washington next week.
The extension was welcome news to investors, as it indicates officials are close to a deal before the March 1 deadline, when U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to increase to 25% from 10%. U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that he could extend the deadline by 60-days, if the two sides continue to make progress.
Xi made his comments after meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
The S&P 500 futures rose 3 points or 0.11% as of 6:45 AM ET (11:45 GMT) while Dow futures gained 27 points or 0.11% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 7 points or 0.11%.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) was among the top gainers in premarket trading, jumping 5.8% after its earnings beat expectations, while semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) gained 1.5%, and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) rose 6.38% after news that activist investor Carl Icahn plans to push the management of the company to seek a sale.
Elsewhere, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) fell 1.3%, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) slipped 0.4% and pharmaceutical company Achaogen Inc (NASDAQ:AKAO) slumped 39% after it proposed a secondary public offering of its common stock.
In economic news, investors will be looking to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT), especially after Thursday’s disappointing retail sales numbers.
In commodities, gold futures recovered 0.6% to $1,322.15 a troy ounce, while crude oil rose 0.5% to $54.70 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.14% to 96.94 but was still off an overnight high.