By Medha Singh
(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to hit record highs at the open on Thursday as China’s plan to chop additional tariffs on some American goods by 50% helped ease fears over the financial fallout of the coronavirus epidemic.
Beijing said it would lower extra levies imposed last year against 1,717 U.S. products, weeks after the signing of a Phase 1 trade deal.
The tariff cut follows hefty monetary stimulus by China’s central bank earlier this week to support an economy hit by shutdowns and travel restrictions due to the virus outbreak.
“The fear investors had when the virus first started seems to have abated somewhat,” said Rick Meckler, partner, Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.
A string of positive U.S. economic data too have helped mitigate worries, fueling a three-day rally on Wall Street. The Nasdaq <.IXIC> hit a record high on Wednesday and the S&P 500 <.SPX> is on pace for its best week in eight months after last week’s steep pullback.
However, the impact of the health emergency in China continued to show up in corporate reports. Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc
Its shares fell 1.8% in premarket trading.
At 8:26 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 109 points, or 0.37%. S&P 500 e-minis The fourth-quarter earnings season is more than half done with nearly 70% of S&P 500 companies exceeding their earnings estimates, according to IBES data form Refinitiv.
Twitter Inc Breakfast cereal maker Kellogg Co Tesla Inc As the week draws to a close, investor attention will shift to the crucial U.S. jobs report on Friday.
(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
