Stocks – U.S. Futures Push Higher on Trade, Brexit Hopes

Investing.com — U.S. stock markets hit new all-time highs overnight and were set to open only slightly below them on Friday, as a convincing win for Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the U.K. general election removed a key uncertainty over the Brexit process, adding to optimism generated on Thursday by reports of an imminent trade deal between the U.S. and China.

China has, however, failed to respond publicly to offer reportedly approved on Thursday by President Donald Trump, under which existing U.S. tariffs on imports from China would be partially rolled back and the new tariffs scheduled for Sunday would be suspended, pending written confirmation of China’s commitment to buy fixed volumes of U.S. farm goods.

As such, the threat that the new tariffs, covering $160 billion worth of Chinese goods annually, will come into force as schedule has not been completely lifted.

By 7:25 AM ET (1225 GMT), were up 138 points, or 0.4%, having earlier hit a new high of 28,297 points. The S&P 500 futures contract was 0.4% higher and the contract was up 0.5%.

Chipmaker Broadcom (NASDAQ:) was marked 1.3% lower after a disappointing fourth quarter report that wasn’t wholly compensated for by the promise of a recovery next year. By contrast, Adobe (NASDAQ:) was indicated up 3.1% after issuing more upbeat guidance.

Oracle (NYSE:), meanwhile, was set to open lower after losing 2.5% in after-hours trading in response to reporting quarterly revenue that fell short of expectations – even though earnings per share were 2c higher than forecast. The company also said that it wouldn’t replace departed co-CEO Mark Hurd, leaving Safra Catz in sole charge at the helm.

Elsewhere, optimism on trade relations with China pushed oil futures to a three-month high, while sharp losses against the and the pushed the down to a five-month low of 96.715, before rebounding to 96.845. held steady at $1,475.35, up 0.2% as dollar weakness outweighed the broad rise in risk appetite.

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