U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday on the back of fresh reports on U.S.-China relations.
Dow Jones futures rose 89 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures also rose 0.2%.
On Thursday, China's state news agency Xinhua reported that President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone call. China's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Trump initiated the call.
The report prompted a surge in stock futures after they had earlier been flat following the release of fresh labor market data. Initial jobless claims rose to 247,000 last week, up 8,000 from the previous week and above economists' expectations of 236,000.
This came a day after private sector employment data for May showed a gain of just 37,000 jobs, well below the Dow Jones forecast of 110,000, raising investor concerns about the slowdown in the jobs market and its impact on the economy.
The Dow Jones fell 0.22% on Wednesday, its first loss in five days of gains. The S&P 500 edged up 0.01%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.32%.
However, a recent rally driven by technology stocks and a strong first-quarter earnings season have reinvigorated Wall Street. However, investors remain wary of the impact of the Trump administration’s continued tariffs.
“The impact of tariffs will still be significant in the second quarter and possibly the third quarter,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. “What’s surprising so far is that we haven’t seen significant inflationary pressures. But from a corporate earnings perspective, the tariffs will hurt at least in the short term.”
So far this week, all three major U.S. indexes have been up. The S&P 500 rose 1%, the Dow added 0.4% and the Nasdaq, which relies heavily on technology stocks, jumped 1.8%.
