Investing.com - U.S. futures jumped on Friday as news suggesting progress in trade talks between the U.S. and China helped lift sentiment.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer spoke by telephone on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The news came just a day after Mnuchin said that a summit to secure a trade agreement between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would not happen before April. Trump said Thursday that he would know in the next month or so if a deal with China will happen.
Dow futures rose 90 points to 0.35% by 6:43 AM ET (10:43 GMT), while S&P 500 futures gained 9 points or 0.35% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up 38 points or 0.53%. Market sentiment was also lifted after the British Parliament voted to ask the European Union to push back the March 29 deadline for the U.K.'s departure from the bloc.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 0.7% in premarket trading amid news that a U.S. federal judge issued a preliminary ruling that Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) owes it $1 billion in patent royalty rebates. Semiconductor company Micron (NASDAQ:MU) jumped 1.8% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) inched up 0.6% while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was up 0.3%.
Meanwhile, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was among the hardest hit, falling 1.6% amid news that Chris Cox, the company’s chief product officer, is leaving due to disagreements with Mark Zuckerberg over his plan to focus the company on encryption messaging services.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slumped 2.4% as questions remained over the launch of its mid-size electric SUV, including where it will be manufactured.
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) fell 3.3% after it said its revenue declined 1% in the last quarter, reflecting a struggle to keep up in the key growth area of cloud services.
On the economic front, the New York Empire State manufacturing index comes out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT), while industrial production data is released at 9:15 AM ET (13:15 GMT0 and the JOLTS job openings is expected at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT) along with the Michigan consumer sentiment index.
In commodities, gold futures jumped 0.58% to $1,302.55 a troy ounce, while crude oil hit a new high for 2019 before edging back down to $58.56 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.16% to 96.61.