By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open higher Tuesday, as tensions between China and the U.S. appeared to ease and more states and corporations looked to reopen for business.
At 07:10 AM ET (1110 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 32 points, or 1.2%, higher, Nasdaq 100 Futures up 110 points, or 1.3%. The Dow futures contract rose 270 points, or 1.2%.
Deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger said late Monday the United States is not considering “punitive measures” against China over its handling of the pandemic.
This contrasted with more aggressive comments over the weekend from the U.S. administration, which had raised fears of another trade war between the two most powerful economies in the world.
Now attention turns to the idea of a return to normalcy, as more and more states look to reopen for business. The latest to do so is New York, the state hardest hit by the pandemic, after Governor Andrew Cuomo Monday outlined seven requirements needed for each region in the state to reopen.
Some areas, including central New York and the sparsely populated North Country section of the state, are already meeting five of the seven requirements, he said. New York City is meeting only three.
Adding to this, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) announced late Monday that the coffee giant plans to reopen more than 85% of its U.S. stores by the end of this week. Starbucks stock gained 3.1% premarket.
The corporate earnings season continues Tuesday, with Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) the leading name, reporting after the bell. The company has been hard hit by the pandemic, with its theme parks unlikely to open until 2021, cruises suspended and advertising on live sporting events on ESPN cancelled. Can the new income stream from Disney+ offset this?
Elsewhere, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be in the spotlight after the iPhone maker on Monday borrowed $8.5 billion with a four-part bond deal.
Shares of L Brands (NYSE:LB) fell more than 7% premarket after the company pulled out of its plan to take Victoria's Secret private, and Hertz (NYSE:HTZ) slumped 27% amid reports it could file for bankruptcy as early as this week.
Turning to economic data, the Institute of Supply Management will release its April non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).
The ISM services index is expected to have plunged to 36.8 last month from 52.5 in March. That would be below the all-time low for the index of 37.3 set in 2008.
Oil futures pushed higher, amid signs the short-term imbalance between supply and demand is easing. The American Petroleum Institute will issue its snapshot of weekly U.S. oil inventories after the bell. Last week’s numbers showed a build of 10 million barrels in crude.
At 7:10 AM ET, U.S. crude June futures traded 9.8% higher at $22.38 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 7.6% to $29.27..
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,704/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.0836, down 0.7%.