US open: Positive open on Wall Street as threat of trade war eases
US trading kicked off to a positive open on Wall Street on Monday as worries about a trade war between the US and China eased, suggesting that stocks' recent gains were set to continue.
At 1510 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were up by 0.38% and 0.36%, respectively, while the Nasdaq was 0.51% firmer.
Traders continued to mull over developments in trade talks between the US and China, after Donald Trump said over the weekend that he would help Chinese telecom giant ZTE return to business after it suspended operations in April as a result of a White House ban on American firms selling components to the company after it admitted to making illegal shipments to Iran and North Korea.
Joshua Mahony, a market analyst at IG, said, "Worries over the risk of a breakdown in negotiations between the US and Chinese are clearly fading after Trump showed a willingness to help out Chinese tech firm ZTE after they suspended operations off the back of US sanctions last month. With Trump clearly holding the cards amid potential concessions over steel and aluminium imports alongside ZTE, there is strong grounds for further talks to result in a positive outcome for global trade."
Oil prices were in focus as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it had "all the tools" needed to balance the market following the US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. West Texas Intermediate was up 0.1% to $70.80 a barrel, while Brent crude was 0.2% higher at $77.30, reversing earlier losses.
Investors were also digesting comments from Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who said in a speech in Paris earlier that it's too soon to declare that inflation in the US has reached its goal on a "sustainable basis".
"As the expansion continues, it could be that in order to maintain our policy goals, we may need to move the fed funds rate, for a time, a bit above the level of the funds rate that is expected to prevail over the longer run," she said.
"Of course, 2020 is a long time away and the policy path actually followed will be responsive to changes in the outlook."
Elsewhere, St Louis Fed President James Bullard said the growth in bitcoin and other digital currencies had created a "non-uniform" currency in the United States, which had existed in the past, but had ultimately been rejected and replaced.
Speaking at the CoinDesk Consensus 2018 conference in New York, Bullard said consumers and businesses may not like a non-uniform currency system.
"Cryptocurrencies may unwittingly be pushing in the wrong direction in trying to solve an important social problem, which is how best to facilitate market-based exchange," Bullard said.
On the corporate front, shares in electric car maker Tesla ticked up 0.14% following reports that senior executive Matthew Schwall had left the company for Waymo.
Technology group Xerox lost 7.59% after saying it would ditch its merger deal with Fujifilm.
Software firm Symantec rose 10.14% a day after plummeting 35% as a result of its audit committee revealing that it had launched an internal investigation, which spurred a series of downgrades from several brokerages.
Helios and Matheson Analytics, the majority owner of MoviePass, collected 4.47% in early trading after freefalling almost 70% last week.