Investing.com - U.S. futures were higher on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he will postpone increased tariffs on Chinese imports by two weeks.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose 22 points or 0.3% by 6:43 AM ET (10:43 GMT), while Dow futures gained 46 points or 0.2% and S&P 500 Futures were up 3 points or 0.1%.
In what Trump called a “gesture of goodwill,” a planned 5% increase in tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports will be postponed as the two sides prepare to meet for trade negotiations in early October. The tariffs were set to increase to 30% from 25% on the goods.
Semiconductor companies climbed after news of the tariff delay, with Micron (NASDAQ:MU) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) up 0.6% and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) gaining 0.4%. Technology stocks were also higher, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) up 0.1% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rising 0.4%.
Elsewhere, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) fell 0.6% after its CEO, Mark Hurd, announced he was taking a medical leave of absence and a $15 billion stock buyback.
Investors were also waiting for an expected stimulus package from the European Central Bank, which could pave the way for another wave of easing. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates on Wednesday.
On the data front, initial jobless claims and CPI data for August are released at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In commodities, crude oil fell 0.9% to $55.28 a barrel. Gold futures were up 0.5% to $1,510.25 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.1% to 98.558.