US pre-open: Futures point to small gains despite weak Chinese data

US stocks looked set to continue their recent rally ahead of the bell on Monday after the main Wall Street indices surged to new highs last week after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell hinted that an interest rate cut could be on the horizon.

As of 1215 BST, Dow futures were up 0.18%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were calling the indices to open 0.16% and 0.13% firmer, respectively.

The Dow looked set to start the session stronger after it closed above 27,000 for the first time on Thursday and Friday's gain brought its advance for the week to 1.5%.

Market participants were likely to have an eye firmly fixed on developments in Washington's ongoing trade war with Beijing after Reuters revealed on Sunday that the US was looking to push through the approval of licenses to allow companies to start trading with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei within two to four weeks.

With China in mind, figures released overnight showed that economic growth in the Asian giant slowed to a year-on-year pace of 6.2% during the second quarter, the slowest clip in 27 years.

Still on the geopolitical front, participants will also likely be digesting news that Iranian president Hassan Rouhani stated that Tehran is ready to hold talks with the White House if Washington lifted sanctions against it and returned to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Elsewhere, Donald Trump has told aides that he was contemplating removing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross after he backed down from adding a contentious question on citizenship to the 2020 census, according to NBC News.

In other economic news, July's Empire State Manufacturing index will be posted at 1330 BST, while NY Fed president John Williams will speak at 1350 BST.

Ahead of the open, analysts at TD Securities said: "The NY Empire manufacturing index is expected to bounce back into positive territory in July (mkt: +2.0), following the massive decline in June to -8.6 from 17.8 before.

"The improvement would likely reflect some easing on trade worries that affected manufacturing sentiment in June (US-Mexico standoff and fallout in US-China talks pre-G20)."

On the corporate front, Callon shares slid in pre-market trading after announcing it would acquire Carrizo Oil and Gas in an all stock deal, while OganiGram shares jumped despite the company swinging to a loss.