Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a lower opening on Friday, with stocks likely to give back ground after moving sharply higher over the course of the previous session.
Renewed concerns about the U.S.-China trade war may weigh on the markets after a report from Bloomberg said President Donald Trump?s administration is holding off on decisions about licenses for U.S. companies to restart business with Chinese tech giant Huawei.
Trump previously said his administration would make ?timely licensing decisions? but has reportedly decided to delay the decisions in response to China halting its purchases of U.S. agricultural products.
China decided to stop buying U.S. agricultural products in retaliation against Trump?s announcement last week that he plans to impose a 10 percent tariff on the remaining $300 billion worth of Chinese imports.
The report may weigh on U.S. chipmakers, which require a special license to sell goods to Huawei after the company was added to a U.S. trade blacklist in May over national security concerns.
Following the recovery from an early sell-off on Wednesday, stocks extended the upward move with a substantial rally during trading on Thursday. With the jump on the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 more than offset Monday’s steep losses.
The major averages saw further upside in late-day trading, closing just off their highs of the session. The Dow surged up 371.12 points or 1.4 percent to 26,378.19, the Nasdaq soared 176.33 points or 2.2 percent to 8,039.16 and the S&P 500 spiked 54.11 points or 1.9 percent to 2,938.09.
The rally on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to a report from the Chinese customs office showing unexpected annual growth in Chinese exports.
The report said Chinese exports in July were up by 3.3 percent compared to the same month a year ago, while economists had expected a 2 percent decrease.
While the report also showed a 5.6 percent year-over-year drop in Chinese imports, that was smaller than the 8.3 percent slump expected by economists.
The data eased concerns about the impact of the U.S.-China trade dispute even though it reflects a period before the latest escalation in the trade war.
Meanwhile, China’s central bank set the midpoint for the yuan above 7.00 per dollar the first time in a decade, but it was not as weak as many had expected.
The news out of China contributed to a rebound by U.S. treasury yields, as some traders moved money out of the safe haven of bonds.
On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report unexpectedly showing a modest decrease in first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended August 3rd.
The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 209,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 217,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Software stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading session, driving the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index up by 2.9 percent. The index continued to recover after ending Monday’s trading at a two-month closing low.
Significant strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 2.7 percent jump by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) posted a standout gain after launching its second generation server chip with Google and Twitter as customers.
Energy, biotechnology, and chemical stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
