US open: Modest gains at the bell as trade news boosts sentiment

Stocks on Wall Street were trading slightly firmer at the opening bell on Monday as the Street braced for yet another day of corporate earnings and investors digested fresh news around the ongoing trade talks with China.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.04% at 26,554.15, while the S&P 500 was 0.08% ahead at 2,942.12 and the Nasdaq traded 0.06% firmer at 8,151,23.

The Dow opened 10 points higher on Monday to start the week's trading after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs on Friday following better-than-expected results from a handful of US firms.

In trade news, US Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said talks between the US and China were "getting into the final laps" ahead of another round of talks between the two nations which was due to start the next day.

"I think both sides have a desire to reach an agreement," Mnuchin said, according to the New York Times. "We’ve made a lot of progress."

However, Mnuchin said that while both countries were nearing a deal, the negotiations were also reaching a point where either an agreement could happen or the whole saga could still end without a deal.

Both Mnuchin and Lighthizer were set to head to Beijing for talks on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, a slowdown in global growth and heightened tensions in trade and geopolitics have begun to pose economic challenges for countries throughout the Middle East, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF's Regional Economic Outlook report highlighted how volatile oil prices had negatively affected some countries.

"For oil-importing countries where debt is high, it’s very important to tackle it and to reduce the level of deficit. That will allow those countries to reduce their debt burden over GDP," said the IMF's Middle East and Central Asian director Jihad Azour.

As of 1520 BST, West Texas Intermediate was trading 0.70% lower at $62.86 per barrel, while a barrel of Brent Crude was 0.49% weaker at $71.80.

In corporate news, Spotify was down 0.98% in early trade as fears that rivals Google and Amazon were coming to take its crown dampened news that it had hit 100m paid subscribers.

Burger King owner Restaurant Brands slid 3.66% at the bell after turning in a whopper first-quarter earnings miss as a result of slowing sales.

Google parent company Alphabet and Western Digital will update investors with their most recent quarterly figures following the close.

On the data front, Americans splashed out last month, with consumption accelerating by a factor of almost ten in comparison to the previous month, but income growth fell well short of economists' forecasts.

According to the Department of Commerce, in month-on-month terms, personal income and spending rose by 0.1% and 0.9%, respectively.

When discussing the PCE report's impact on Jerome Powell and the Fed's next steps, Pantheon Macroeconomics' Ian Shepherdson said: "The bottom line is that three straight months with very small core PCE readings, leaving the y/y rate at 1.6%, will not go unnoticed at the Fed.

"We think it’s mostly noise rather than signal, but the y/y rate is unlikely to rise much before late summer and could easily dip further in the meantime. If the Fed hikes this year, it will be because of accelerating wages, not the inflation rate at the time."

Still to come, the latest Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity figures will be posted at 1530 BST.