NEW YORK: US stock index futures rose on Wednesday, with electric carmaker Tesla and insurer United Health among the biggest drivers after the tech-heavy Nasdaq index hit a record high on Tuesday.
UnitedHealth shares jumped 1.3 percent in premarket trading after the health insurer hiked its quarterly dividend and announced a buyback.
Tesla Inc jumped 3.9 percent after billionaire Chief Executive Elon Musk reassured shareholders that building 5,000 of its mass market Model 3 cars per week by the end of June was "quite likely".
The Nasdaq closed at a record high on both Monday and Tuesday, helped by gains for Apple, Amazon and other tech giants.
However, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up only 2.75 points, or 0.04 percent, pointing to a slightly higher open.
Also playing in were gains for some of the suppliers of ZTE Corp after sources familiar with the matter said it had signed an agreement in principle that would lift a US ban on the telecoms equipment maker.
Shares of Qualcomm rose 0.9 percent and Intel Corp rose 0.1 percent while smaller optical components makers including Acacia Communications gained 3.2percent and Finisar Corp was up 2.0 percent.
US officials were weighing an offer by China to import an extra $70 billion of American goods over a year as Beijing tries to defuse a potential trade war between the world's two largest economies, according to sources.
"There is no new escalation on the trade front and a result of that, there is absence of bad news and stocks will tend to rebound in a relief rally," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin.
At 8:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 121 points, or 0.49 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were up 4.75 points, or 0.17 percent.
US President Donald Trump is due to attend a G7 summit in Canada later this week, where leaders were likely to discuss the global economy and concerns about US trade policy.
Six of the other G7 countries - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - are now paying the metals import tariffs Trump announced earlier this year.
Trump last week pushed on with imposing the tariffs - 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum - on Canada, the EU and Mexico, with Mexico retaliating by putting tariffs on American products ranging from steel to pork and bourbon.
Signet Jewelers jumped 9.4 percent after reporting a surprise profit and higher-than-expected revenue in the first quarter.
L Brands rose 1.9 percent after the Victoria's Secret owner reported a 10 percent jump in sales in May.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.