Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a higher open on Monday as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea eased in what was expected to be a quiet session with no major economic reports stateside.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 95 points, or 0.43%, at 6:47AM ET (10:47GMT), the S&P 500 futures rose 14 points, or 0.57%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 33 points, or 0.57%.
Escalating conflict between Washington and Pyongyang caused risk-off sentiment in stocks last week as investors shifted funds to safe havens, but an apparent calming of tempers shifted some of those trades into reverse.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson both said on Sunday that the Trump administration would continue to seek diplomatic resolutions with North Korea, while CIA director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster also said there was no indication war will break out.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also chimed in over the weekend, calling for a peaceful resolution and urging both sides to avoid words or action that would incite tension.
Global stock markets were mostly higher, bouncing back after fears of a U.S.-North Korea nuclear standoff drove them to the biggest weekly losses of 2017.
Stock markets across Asia ended mostly in positive territory, recovering after three straight losing sessions.
The upward momentum carried over into Europe, where stocks rose from their lowest levels in almost five months. Germany's DAX jumped more than 1% in mid-morning trade.
With tensions easing, safe haven assets like the yen, Swiss franc and gold were all lower as market players recovered risk appetite and moved back to equities.
In company news, shares of Jd.Com (NASDAQ:JD) were up more than 1% in pre-market trade after the Chinese online direct sales firm reported results that beat on both the top and bottom line.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was in the headlines after signing a multiyear deal with ABC’s TV hitmaker Shonda Rhimes.
Meanwhile, oil prices slumped on Monday, as lingering concerns over a global supply glut weighed on sentiment.
With no major U.S. economic data on tap, investors digested mixed reports from Asia.
In positive news, Japan's economy expanded at an annualized rate of 4.0% in the second quarter, the fastest pace of growth since the first quarter of 2015. The reading beat expectations for growth of just 2.5% and put the Japanese economy at the lead of growth for the G7 advanced economies.
On the downside, China’s industrial production rose a worse-than-expected 6.4% in July from a year earlier, the slowest pace since January, while fixed asset investment and retail sales also missed forecasts.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.68% to $48.49 by 6:49AM ET (10:49GMT), while Brent oil 0.77% to $51.70.