Investing.com-- U.S. stock index futures rose slightly on Wednesday evening as investors remained hopeful for a deescalation in trade tensions with China, while focus also turned to upcoming earnings from tech giant Alphabet.
Futures rose after a positive session on Wall Street as President Donald Trump flagged some potential in reducing steep trade tariffs on China, while also tempering his rhetoric against the Federal Reserve.
A string of positive quarterly earnings also aided sentiment by setting a strong precedent for the remainder of the earnings season. Still, gains on Wall Street remained testy, especially amid heightened uncertainty over trade tariffs and the economy.
S&P 500 Futures rose 0.1% to 5,406.25 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 0.1% to 18,817.50 points by 19:32 ET (23:32 GMT). Dow Jones Futures fell 0.2% to 39,713.0 points.
Wall St gains on trade war deescalation hopes
Wall Street indexes were buoyed by Trump’s comments on potentially reducing his 145% trade tariffs on China, although the President did state that such a scenario would hinge on China coming to the negotiating table.
But these hopes were somewhat tempered by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stating that there was no unilateral offer from Trump to lower Chinese tariffs. Bessent had earlier said that the U.S.-China tariff exchange was unsustainable, and that he expected a deescalation soon.
China has so far shown little intent in negotiating, after having slapped retaliatory tariffs of 125% on American goods earlier this month.
The S&P 500 rose 1.7% to 5,375.82 points, while the NASDAQ Composite rallied 2.5% to 16,708.05 points on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1% to 39,606.57 points, although all three indexes ended below their intraday highs.
Sentiment was also supported by Trump dialing back his rhetoric against the Fed, clarifying that he did not intend to fire Chair Jerome Powell. Trump had embarked on a social media tirade against Powell in the past week, calling on him to lower interest rates or risk a recession.
Alphabet to headline next batch of Q1 earnings
Google owner Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) is set to report its quarterly earnings after the close on Thursday, with focus squarely on whether the company continued to log strong returns on its investments in artificial intelligence.
Focus will also be on Alphabet’s plans for more AI-related spending, given that the company is among Wall Street’s biggest spenders on the technology.
Beyond Alphabet, other Wall Street majors including PG (NYSE: PG ), T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS ), PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ: PEP ), Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GILD ), and Comcast Corp (NASDAQ: CMCSA ) are also set to report earnings on Thursday.