US pre-open: Stocks set for moderately higher start on trade optimism
US stocks are being called to start the session higher on the back of positive headlines from across the Pacific on the state of US-China trade talks.
Key to the positive tone in equity futures, on Friday morning, the American Secretary of the Treasury said that the latest negotiations in Beijing had been "constructive" and that he looked forward to the next round, which were scheduled for the following week.
That followed remarks from White House economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, from the day before, when he said that a finished trade deal might still be weeks or even months away.
"Oil prices are a little higher on Friday, with positive US/China trade headlines certainly supportive, " said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
"This remains the greatest risk for the global economy so positive headlines are naturally risk positive. It's certainly helping equity markets."
To take note of, according to economists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, delays in signing a US-China trade deal could postpone the recovery in China's economy which many economists had been anticipating for the back half of 2019.
Against that backdrop, as of 1121 GMT, futures on the S&P 500 were pointing to a gain of 10.0 points to 2,831.0 on the S&P 500 and of 89.0 points to 25,826.0 for the Dow Jones Industrials.
Investors were also waiting on a raft of US economic reports, even as they kept an eye out for any surprises around Brexit.
Included among those reports were figures on personal income and spending for January and February, at 1230 GMT, and the Chicago NAPM's regional manufacturing sector index at 1345 GMT.
Meanwhile, and on Brexit, Erlam was telling clients: "no-deal remains possible but unlikely. The realistic worst case scenario right now is a long extension and that has its positives and negatives, from a sterling perspective.
"On the one hand, it's another prolonged period of economic uncertainty but one after which we could end up with a softer Brexit than that on offer, or none at all."
British MPs were set to start voting in Parliament on the government's withdrawal agreement at 1430 GMT.