US open: Stocks surge as Trump reveals plans to meet Xi

Stocks on Wall Street sprinted out of the gate on Tuesday after Donald Trump agreed to meet with his Chinese counterpart at this month's G-20 meeting, catching traders - whose attention had been locked on the Federal Reserve as policymakers began a two-day meeting - on the hop.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.13% at 26,408.16, while the S&P 500 opened 1.11% firmer at 2,921.69 and the Nasdaq Composite started the session 1.74% stronger at 7,981.91.

Stocks surged at the open, with the Dow up 295 points - dwarfing the Dow's modest 22 point gain seen during the previous session - after Donald Trump revealed that he had just gotten off a "very good telephone conversation" with President Xi Jinping of China.

Trump said he would be having "an extended meeting" next week at the G-20 meeting in Japan and revealed that teams from the two countries would begin talks prior to their meeting.

Market participants were also keeping an eye out for any hints coming from the FOMC meeting as to whether or not the central bank was set for a rate cut later in the year after fresh hopes for looser monetary policy eased tensions in risk assets last month.

However, The Federal Reserve was expected to leave borrowing costs unchanged - much to the chagrin of Donald Trump, who on frequent occasions had demanded that the central bank cut interest rates.

Also in focus was news from across that pond that ECB President Mario Draghi had doubled-down on the bank's commitment to use all policy tools if the economic outlook did not improve.

Trump lashed out at Draghi following the news, accusing him of purposely weakening the euro.

"Mario Draghi just announced more stimulus could come, which immediately dropped the Euro against the Dollar, making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA. They have been getting away with this for years, along with China and others," tweeted Trump.

On the data front, US housing starts fell in May as the previous month's figure was revised higher, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.

Housing starts fell 0.9% to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 1.269m from a revised April rate of 1.281m. The April rate was revised up from 1.235m. Analysts had been expecting starts to tick up from the initially-reported rate to 1.240m.

On the year, housing starts were down 4.7%.

When discussing the figures, Berenberg Capital Markets said: "There is room for improvement in the market for new homes, which, unlike other sectors, is in the early stages of recovery – housing starts and new home sales are only back to early 1990 levels. We do not expect housing starts to return to the exuberant levels of the 2000s; rather, we estimate that starts around ~1,500k annually is necessary to meet demand.

"However, we caution that the recovery for the rate-sensitive, price-sensitive, and weather-sensitive housing sector will continue to be choppy."

In corporate news, construction outfit Parsons saw shares gain 2.71% in early trading after delivering strong first quarter results, while meat substitute manufacturer Beyond Meat was up 5.25% after announcing its new "ground beef" product.

La-Z-Boy and Silicon Valley giant Oracle will both unveil their own figures after the close.