Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to a higher opening bell on Tuesday as talk of trade negotiations between China and the U.S. continued to bolster markets.
The S&P 500 futures was up 14 points or 0.54% to 2,673.75 as of 6:43 AM ET (10:43 GMT) while Dow futures increased 117 points or 0.48% to 24,308.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 54 points or 0.80% to 6,827.50.
The Dow had its best one day gain in nearly two and a half years on Monday, closing up over 600 points, following reports of U.S. and China trade talks.
China has offered to buy more semiconductors from the U.S., as well as opening up the financial services sector to foreign investment, the Financial Times reported. Last week U.S. President Donald Trump had imposed tariffs on $60 billion in Chinese imports, which prompted worry of a global trade war.
In other political news, the U.S. and European Union countries expelled over 100 Russian diplomats on Monday in response to the poisoning of a former British-Russian spy earlier in March. Moscow has denied any wrongdoing.
Shares of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) tumbled on Monday after the Federal Trade Commission confirmed it is investigating how the social media giant handles user data. Facebook has faced criticism after a third-party app was used to target 50 million users without their knowledge. The firm inched up 1.16% in pre-market trading.
Meanwhile Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 0.86% while streaming service Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) surged 3.53% after being upgraded by Citi from sell to neutral. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) gained 1.14% after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) said the software giant could reach $1 trillion in market capitalization within the next year.
Elsewhere Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (NYSE:HMY) was down 2.00% and Regency Centers Corporation (NYSE:REG) dipped 0.88%.
In economic news, consumer confidence is released at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 223 points or 1.90% while in France the CAC 40 increased 77 points or 1.52% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 133 points or 1.94%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 59 points or 1.81% while Spain’s IBEX 35 surged 111 points or 1.18%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.49% to $1,348.40 a troy ounce while crude oil futures inched up 0.26% to $65.72 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, increased 0.34% to 88.94.