Stock futures edged higher Thursday as Wall Street’s concerns about the U.S.-China trade conflict appeared to ease and, as a result, fears of a global economic slowdown seemed less threatening.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.30 percent, the S&P 500 was higher by 0.35 percent and futures on the Nasdaq Composite added 0.34 percent.
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The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury rose to 2.27 percent from 2.24 percent, a sign that investors may be less interested in safe investments than they were earlier this week. The price and yield on bonds move in opposite directions.
The U.S. economy grew modestly slower than initially thought during the first quarter of 2019, according to data released Thursday by the Commerce Department.
The revised numbers — which include more complete information — show that during the three-month period from January to March, the GDP rose at a 3.1 annualized rate. That’s down slightly from the first reading of 3.2 percent growth, but beats Wall Street’s expectation of 3 percent.
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Ticker | Security | Last | Change | %Chg |
---|---|---|---|---|
I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 25126.41 | -221.36 | -0.87% |
SP500 | S&P 500 | 2783.02 | -19.37 | -0.69% |
I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 7547.309451 | -60.04 | -0.79% |
Aaron Anderson, senior vice president of research at Fisher Investments, said investors should consider President Trump’s likely willingness to resolve matters with China ahead of the American 2020 election campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“He would much rather go into that campaign season with some sort of trade victory than continuing to be embroiled in this trade spat with China,” Anderson said.
Central banks are signaling that global growth worries may be overdone, according to Dow Jones.
For example, the Bank of Canada is keeping interest rates unchanged and said a broad-based improvement in domestic economic activity reinforces its view that a slowdown that began late last year was temporary.
“The message of patience remains loud and clear among the North American central banks, even as traders continue to pit themselves against policymakers over rate cut expectations,” strategists at Singapore-based OCBC Bank said in a note.
Shares of Dollar General soared 6 percent in premarket action after it reported quarterly profit that beat analyst estimates. The discount retailer is planning to open more than 900 stores this year.
Ticker | Security | Last | Change | %Chg |
---|---|---|---|---|
DG | DOLLAR GENERAL | 118.51 | -1.45 | -1.21% |
Crude oil prices were flat as expectations for a drop in supplies were offset by concerns about a global growth slowdown from the U.S.-China trade war. Oil is up slightly this week, coming off last week’s 6.6 percent plunge, the biggest drop since December.
China’s Shanghai Composite closed down 0.31 percent, the Hang Seng was off 0.44 percent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended the session lower by 0.29 percent.
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Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.36 percent, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.20 percent and Germany’s DAX added 0.35 percent.