US STOCKS-Futures edge higher on trade truce hopes

U.S. equity futures edged higher on Thursday following a report that the United States and China had agreed to a tentative truce in their trade dispute before a G20 summit this weekend, but gains were tempered by Boeing shares after more 737 MAX woes.

Washington and Beijing were laying out an agreement that would help avert the next round of tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports, the South China Morning Post reported, citing sources. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said a trade deal with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was possible this weekend, though he was prepared to impose tariffs on virtually all remaining Chinese imports if talks fail.

Semiconductor companies, which have sizable revenue exposure to China, were trading higher, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp up between 0.5% and 1.7%. Boeing Co fell 3.1% and was the biggest decliner among the 24 Dow components trading premarket after Reuters reported that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration identified a new flaw in the planemaker's grounded 737 MAX jets.

At 7:08 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 7 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 e-minis were up 5.75 points, or 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 22.5 points, or 0.29%. Investors are hoping for a resolution of the trade war, which has rattled investors who have ditched shares for the safety of bonds and gold this year and pushed the Federal Reserve to signal an interest rate cut as soon as next month.

On the data front, the U.S. Commerce Department is scheduled to report economy expanded at a 3.1% annualized rate in its third reading of first-quarter GDP growth. The data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET.