Investing.com – U.S. futures were higher on Wednesday, as trade hopes were lifted after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could push back the March 1 deadline if a deal was close.
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 two sides are working to resolve their differences before U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports rise to 25% from 10% at the start of next month.
The S&P 500 futures rose 5 points or 0.21% as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures gained 64 points or 0.25% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 27 points or 0.39%.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co (NYSE:PCG) rose 3.6% in premarket trading after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he had formed a team to come up with a strategy for the bankrupt utility within 60 days.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) inched up 0.1% despite news that its vice president of global recruiting is leaving the company.
Meanwhile semiconductor company Micron (NASDAQ:MU) gained 0.5%, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was up 0.4% and Tower Semiconductor Ltd (NASDAQ:TSEM) jumped 1.48%.
Elsewhere Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) fell 4.5% after the cloud computing company lowered its first-quarter guidance. Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) slumped 10% after missing its earnings forecast, while General Electric (NYSE:GE) slipped 0.4%.
In commodities, gold futures were flat at $1,314.05 a troy ounce, while crude oil rose 1.24% to $53.76 a barrel, supported by jawboning from Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al-Falih on Tuesday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was at 96.610, after touching a new high for the year of 97.00 overnight.