Reuters Insider - U.S. Morning Call: Wall Street trade reprieve rally, Applied Materials-Kokusai
01/07/2019 14:13
Click the following link to watch video: https://share.insider.thomsonreuters.com/link?entryId=1_yxikdmsy&referenceId=1_yxikdmsy&pageId=ReutersNews Source: Reuters Insider Description: U.S. stock index futures jump after U.S. and China agree to resume trade talks. Applied Materials agreed to buy Kokusai Electric from KKR. The RealReal could be off to a luxurious second day of trade. Short Link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2LuWH3h Video Transcript: Good morning. I'm Angeline Ong and this is your US morning call. Global stocks are riding the trade reprieve wave. Equities rallying from Asia to Europe and Wall Street is likely to serve higher too. Let's take a look at the levels now. The Dow Jones is looking like it's going to rise about a percent at the open. The S&P and the Nasdaq looking like they're open more than 1% higher and if volumes grow, we could see the S&P hitting a fresh record. Now all this reaction coming after the US and China agreed to restart trade talks. President Donald Trump at the G20 offered concessions including no new tariffs and reduce restrictions on Huawei in order to decrease hostilities with Beijing. China, meanwhile, agreed to restart stalled trade negotiations. Now we're seeing quite a reaction on the currency markets to the Dollar's rising to its highest level since June 21st, against a basket of currencies but it's come off that now. Similar picture with the Japanese Yen, which investors tend to buy when they're looking for safety. Weakened to its lowest level since June 19th, before coming off slightly. Now a news of a reprieve in the US-China trade war and Huawei certainly being felt by the chip sector too. Micron Technologies, you can see there indicated higher ahead of the open. Advanced Micro Devices. We're also looking at that, also looking sharply higher at the open. Speaking on CBS's Face The Nation, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow said, "The President is not backing off on the national security concerns. We understand the huge risks concerning Huawei." Anything to do with national security concerns will not receive a new license from the Commerce Department, I think that's very important. I think people have to understand that stuff that's generally available, will be probably getting a temporary license from the Commerce Department. We'll see how far that goes. Now Applied Materials will buy all of Kokusai Electric for $2.2 billion in cash from KKR. The move by the world's biggest supplier of chip-making equipment comes amid rising competition for providing cutting edge chips for use in 5G equipment. It will push Applied Materials' share of the market from 18% to above 20%, reported the Nikkei. A check in on Applied Materials shares after that news and let's have a look at how it might react ahead of the open. Well, it's looking like it will soar once trading starts. It's up some 3.5% in pre-market. KKR, the global investment fund that sold Kokusai to Applied Materials is looking like - not enough volumes there for an indication. The RealReal could be headed for another meteoric open. Shares in the online luxury reseller closed up more than 40% when it debuted on Friday. And that's today's morning call. I'm Angeline Ong and this is Reuters