Wall Street inches higher in premarket as worries over the U.S.-China trade war ease

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Wall Street pointed toward gains before the open Monday, overcoming worries about bank lending and the trade war with China.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4% before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq were up each up 0.3%.

Markets were largely unperturbed by a widespread Amazon Web Services outage. On DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, users reported issues with Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite online broker Robinhood, the McDonald’s app and many other services.

Amazon Web Services said on the site where it provides updates that services in its eastern U.S. region were disrupted and engineers were working to understand what was causing the problem.

Shares of parent company Amazon were essentially unchanged in premarket trading on the tech-focused NASDAQ exchange.

Some of the nervousness around U.S.-China trade tensions eased on Friday after President Donald Trump said that very high tariffs he threatened to put on Chinese imports are not sustainable.

Trump also told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he would meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, at an upcoming conference in South Korea. That’s counter to an earlier, angry posting he made on social media, where he said there seemed to be “no reason” for such a meeting.

Bank stocks, meanwhile, remained stable after several reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, including Truist Financial, Fifth Third Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares.

The quality of loans that banks and other lenders have made is under scrutiny following last month’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing of First Brands Group, a supplier of aftermarket auto parts.

The question is whether the lenders’ problems are just a collection of one-offs or a signal of something larger threatening the industry. Uncertainty is high following a long stretch where many borrowers were able to stay in business, even with the weight of higher interest rates. And with prices soaring to records for all kinds of investments, the appetite for risk may have gotten too high.

In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX was up 1.3%, while the FTSE in Britain picked up 0.3%. In Paris, the CAC 40 was unchanged.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.9%, to 48,970.40, setting a new record, after its governing Liberal Democrats found a new coalition partner, securing support for its leader Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first female prime minister.

Takaichi is expected to push for market-supporting policies such as low interest rates and higher government spending.

China reported its economy grew at a 4.8% annual pace in the last quarter, supported by relatively strong exports as companies increased shipments markets other than the U.S.

Still, it was the slowest pace in a year. The world’s second largest economy is still struggling to emerge from a prolonged downturn in its property market and to encourage consumers and businesses to spend more.

China’s ruling Communist Party leadership convened a meeting Monday in Beijing that is expected to set policy goals for the coming five years and also tackle personnel changes.

The outcome of the closed door meeting this week will likely emerge gradually and be formally endorsed at the annual session of the national legislature in early March.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 2.5% to 25,884.81, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.7% to 3,866.77.

In South Korea, the Kospi surged 1.3% to 3,796.64, setting another record on hopes for a trade deal with Washington and strong demand for semiconductors. SK Hynix gained 3.3% while automakers Kia Corp. rose 2.7% and Hyundai Motor Co. climbed 2.5%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 9,009.10.