Stocks - U.S. Futures Rise as China Offers to Buy American Agricultural Goods

Investing.com - Wall Street was set to open higher on Wednesday on trade optimism after China reportedly offered to increase soybean purchases to 30 million tonnes from 20 million tonnes currently purchased in a peace offering ahead of high-level trade talks in Washington this week.

China is open to a limited deal as long as no more tariffs are imposed, Bloomberg reported. A deal still remains uncertain, as President Donald Trump has said he is not interested in a short- term deal and higher tariff duties are still scheduled to take effect later this month and in December.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 79 points or 1.1% by 6:48 AM ET (10:48 GMT), while Dow futures rallied 205 points or 0.8% and S&P 500 futures were up 25 points or 0.9%.

Semiconductors, which are sensitive to trade news, were higher in premarket trade. AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) gained 1.6%, while NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) was up 1.3%. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.1% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched up 1.3%.

Elsewhere, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) tumbled 1.8% after a court ordered the company to pay a Maryland a man $8 billion because its antipsychotic drug Risperdal caused him to grow enlarged breasts.

The Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its latest policy meeting at 2:00 PM ET (18:00 GMT).

In commodities, crude oil futures gained 0.9% to $53.11 a barrel. Gold futures were up 0.3% to $1,507.85 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.1% to 98.730.

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