Stock futures up as U.S.-China trade war tensions ease

Global Stock Markets

U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday, adding to Wall Street’s sharp rebound on Monday, as fears of a trade war between the United States and China eased. 

President Donald Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on goods from China, which holds a $375 billion trade surplus with the United States, had rattled global markets last week. 

By 7:23 am ET (11:23 GMT), S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 16.25 points, Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 68.25 points and Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 145 points.

Wall Street recorded its best day in 2-1/2 years on Monday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI saw its third-biggest point gain ever. 

The S&P 500 .SPX ended up 2.72 percent, the Dow 2.88 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC 3.26 percent, with all three indexes registering their biggest percentage gains since August 2015. 

Top Trump administration officials are asking China to cut tariffs on imported cars, allow foreign majority ownership of financial services firms and buy more U.S.-made semiconductors to avoid tariffs on Chinese goods and a potential trade war. 

These were among the asks from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as they pursue talks with Beijing, a person familiar with the discussions 

Among the top 25 most active stocks in premarket trading, just four were in the red. 

Facebook (FB.O) was up nearly 1 percent after being hammered for days following the outcry over the social media company’s handling of users’ data. 

The company now faces an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on how it allowed data of 50 million users get into the hands of a political consultancy. 

Kinder Morgan (KMI.N) shares were up 1.2 percent after Citigroup upgraded the stock to “buy”.