Investing.com – U.S. futures rose on Thursday, as investor sentiment improved on news that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering extending a deadline for fresh tariffs on Chinese imports.
Trump could extend the March 1 deadline, when U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to increase to 25% from 10%, by 60-days, Bloomberg reported earlier.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are scheduled to hold talks on Thursday and Friday with Vice Premier Liu He, the top economic adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The S&P 500 futures rose 8 points or 0.30% as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures gained 97 points or 0.38% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 27 points or 0.39%.
Avon Products (NYSE:AVP) jumped 10% in premarket trading, ahead of its earnings release later in the day. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) rose 4% after it reported financial results ahead of expectations and raised its earnings guidance. Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) rose 1.19%, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) inched up 0.5%.
Elsewhere, Fossil Group (NASDAQ:FOSL) slumped 17% after its fourth-quarter earnings were lower than expected, while CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) slipped 11% after it slashed its dividend and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was down 0.15%.
In other earnings news, Canada Goose (NYSE:GOOS), Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) are among those due to report on Thursday.
In commodities, gold futures slipped 0.5% to a three-day low of $1,308.55 a troy ounce, while crude oil rose 1% to a one-and-half-week high of $54.48 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.06% to 96.995.