Stocks - U.S. Futures Higher as Trump Prepares to Meet Top China Trade Rep

Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening bell on Friday, as the U.S. and China continue to work towards a trade deal before tariffs on Chinese goods are increased on March 1.

While the world's two largest economies have made progress, there still remain many gaps between the two sides, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“It’s one thing to write something on a piece of paper,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Fox Business Network on Thursday. “It’s another thing to have enforcement mechanisms. And I know our trade team is hard at work, making sure that the American people get that.”

The S&P 500 futures rose 11 points or 0.43% as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures gained 120 points or 0.47% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up 37 points or 0.53%.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was among the top gainers in premarket trading, rising 2.5%, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gained 0.5% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped 1.3% as it began delivery of its Model 3 to China ahead of schedule. Streaming and ad-based business Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) rose 6% after its earnings came in better than expected, while Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was up 2.9%.

Elsewhere, Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) slumped 20% after its earnings missed estimates and it wrote down the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer trademarks by $15.4 billion. The company is also being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission due to its accounting policies and internal controls.

Investors will also be paying close attention to speeches from Federal Reserve officials later in the day, especially after Thursday’s disappointing economic data.

The Fed has paused its pace of interest rate hikes and may not run down its balance sheet by as much as first thought, minutes from the central bank showed on Wednesday.

Vice Chairman Richard Clarida is set to speak at 12:00 PM ET (17:00 GMT), while the Fed’s Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles speaks on the Fed’s balance sheet at 1:30 PM ET (18:30 GMT).

Meanwhile European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is expected to speak at 10:30 AM ET (15:30 GMT), and may offer further insights into the ECB's reaction to a slew of weak economic data in the last couple of weeks.

In commodities, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,325.05 a troy ounce, while crude oil recovered 0.9% to near a three-month high of $57.49 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.01% to 96.45.

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