Wall St. set to open higher on China stimulus, Mexico tariff relief

(Reuters) – Wall Street was set to edge back toward record territory on Tuesday, as signs of more fiscal stimulus from China and some easing of last week’s tensions around Mexico buoyed investors’ appetite for risk.

Equity index futures were higher across the board in a signal that Wall Street’s week-long recovery from a 6% loss in May was intact.

Since the start of June, the S&P 500 has risen for five straight days and the Dow Jones Industrial Average for six days, its longest winning streak in 13 months.

“The market right now is continuing to move to the upside. There is a combination of factors playing, there was Mexico tariffs being lifted, and the Chinese stimulus plan today,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

Investors, worried by the prospect that President Donald Trump’s hard bargaining on trade with Beijing and others could push the economy back into recession, remained on edge after a U.S. pivot back on its tariff threat against China overnight.

Trump said late on Monday he was ready to impose another round of tariffs on Chinese imports if there was no progress in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit.

The U.S. President has said he expects to meet Xi at a June 28-29 summit in Osaka, Japan, although China is yet to confirm any such meeting.

China helped drive a rally in Asian and European shares on Tuesday after it allowed local governments to use proceeds from special bonds for major investment projects in a bid to support its slowing economy.

The news also lifted U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holdings, JD.com Inc and Baidu Inc, which rose about 2% in premarket trading.

While trade-sensitive Caterpillar Inc rose 2.2% and Boeing Co gained 0.6%.

The marquee FAANG group of stocks – Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Alphabet Inc – climbed between 1% and 1.6%.

Investors cheered the news on Mexico on Monday, putting the S&P 500 index about 2% away from its early May record high.

At 8:54 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 142 points, or 0.54%. S&P 500 e-minis were up 17 points, or 0.59% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 66.75 points, or 0.89%.

Sentiment was also helped by expectations of a cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve in July.

Symantec Corp fell 5.5% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the antivirus software maker’s stock to “underweight” from “equal-weight” on increased competition.

Data showed U.S. producer prices increased solidly for a second straight month in May, pointing to a steady pickup in underlying inflation pressures and likely supported the Fed’s view that the weak inflation readings are probably transitory.