U.S. futures jumped on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would delay increasing tariffs on Chinese goods, raising hopes that a damaging escalation of the two countries' trade war can be avoided.
The two countries had been racing to reach a deal before the original deadline on Friday. With Trump extending the deadline due to the progress on trade talks, a deal between the U.S and China seems more likely.
Trump also tweeted that he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to conclude talks. A note of caution about "new uncertainties" from Chinese official news agency Xinhua has, by comparison, gone largely unregarded.
The S&P 500 futures rose 12 points or 0.46% as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures gained 158 points or 0.61% and tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 futures was up 45 points or 0.65%.
Spark Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ONCE) led the way, more than doubling after Swiss pharma giant Roche bid for it.
Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) bounced 2% after it tapped Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) to review options for its Maxwell House Coffee business. It had lost more than a quarter of its value on Friday after Warren Buffett wrote down Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa)'s stake in the company, admitting that he overpaid for it.
Semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) gained 2.01%, while Micron (NASDAQ:MU) was up 2.3%. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) increased 0.3%, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose 0.8% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.5%.
Elsewhere, Carnival (NYSE:CCL) Corp fell 0.46%, Ulta Beauty Inc (NASDAQ:ULTA) slipped 0.5% and Hexo Corp (NYSE:HEXO) slumped 2.5%.
Investors will also be looking for clues on the state of the U.S. economy during comments from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, who is expected to speak at 11:00 AM ET (16:00 GMT).
In commodities, Gold futures fell 0.04% to $1,332.25 a troy ounce, while crude oil rose 0.33% to $57.45 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.17% to 96.20.
