U.S.-China trade talks to resume in early October
U.S. futures tipped Wall Street for a higher open on Thursday after Washington and Beijing agreed to start a new round of face-to-face trade negotiations in early October.
The two sides will meet in Washington next month following a phone call between Chinese vice-premier Liu He and top White House officials including Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, according to the Financial Times.
At 5:25 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were up 209 points, or 0.79% to 26,581.00 while the S&P 500 futures gained 21.75 points, or 0.74% to 2,960.25. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a gain of 81 points, or 1.05% to 7,803.88.
UK lawmakers block Boris Johnson’s plan for a snap general election
UK members of parliament on Wednesday blocked Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call for a snap general election on October 15. The lawmakers also passed a bill to prevent the prime minister from taking the country out of the European Union without a deal on October 31.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he would only agree to an election once the bill is approved by the upper house of the UK parliament. Johnson claims the government would be unable to negotiate a deal with the EU once the deal becomes law.
Slack plunges after forecasting higher future losses
Slack Technologies Inc (NYSE: WORK) shares are tumbling after the workplace messaging app predicted adjusted losses of $0.08 to $0.09 per share for its fiscal third-quarter on Wednesday. Wall Street was expecting the company to call for an adjusted loss of $0.07 per share, according to Refinitiv.
The company also predicts full-year adjusted losses of $0.40 to $0.42 per share, while analysts forecast an adjusted loss of $0.40 per share. Slack, which went public in June, reported second-quarter adjusted loss of $0.14 per share on revenue of $145 million.
Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had expected the Silicon Valley firm to post adjusted loss of $0.18 per share on revenue of $140.7 million. Shares of Slack were down 12.78% to $27.10 in premarket trading on Thursday.
