U.S. futures rallied on Tuesday, after suffering their worst day of the year on Monday in response to a sharp escalation of the U.S.'s trade conflict with China.
The People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan higher than expected by some and also drained liquidity from the local money market to support the currency, although it still changed hands above 7 to the dollar both on the mainland and in the offshore market. The central bank said it remains committed to keeping the yuan "basically stable at an equilibrium and adaptive level", within the framework of its managed float regime.
Futures had to recover from earlier lows after the U.S. Treasury labeled China a currency manipulator in response to the yuan's drop on Monday.
NASDAQ 100 futures rose 81 points or 1.1% by 6:40 AM ET (10:40 GMT), while Dow futures rallied 224 points or 0.9% and S&P 500 futures gained 26 points or 0.9%.
Ford Motor (NYSE:F) jumped 2.8% in premarket trade, after reports that its executive chairman William Clay Ford Jr. bought a large amount of the company’s stock last week. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gained 0.9%, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 1% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose 1.1%.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was up 1% but was still down over 8% on the week, after CEO Jeff Bezos sold $2.8 billion worth of shares between Monday and Friday. The sales, announced in regulatory filings, go beyond what Bezos previously said he was doing to fund his rocket company Blue Origin.
Meanwhile, Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) fell 0.9%, while International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) slumped 11.1% after news that it is investigating improper payments made by its Isreali subsidiary Frutarom, which it acquired in 2018 for $6.4 billion.
On the economic front, JOLTS job openings are released at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.4% to $54.89 a barrel. Gold futures inched down 0.1% to $1,475.75 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 97.317.
