S&P 500 futures rise on trade deal optimism

US stock futures rose late on Tuesday after it was announced that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet with China’s top economic official later this week in Switzerland.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were up about 1%, signaling that traders expect Wall Street to open higher on Wednesday morning, the latest sharp move in several weeks of uncertainty related to President Donald Trump’s global trade war.

The US Trade Representative’s office and Treasury said Greer and Bessent would travel together to Geneva on May 8 and would also meet with Swiss President Karin Ketter-Sutter to discuss negotiations over reciprocal trade.

In Tuesday’s trading session on Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost ground
after comments from Trump provided little clarity about the timeline for any trade deals.

Stocks have been volatile since Trump announced his first round of tariffs on April 2, with the S&P 500 initially dropping nearly 15%, only to stabilize and briefly recover to levels from before the tariffs were announced.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Leslie Adler)