US STOCKS-Wall St set for higher open as report rekindles hopes of trade deal

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* Wall Street set to buck 3-day losing streak
* U.S. private sector job growth at 6-month low in Nov - ADP
* J&J up as new tests show no asbestos in baby powder
* Alphabet rises as Sundar Pichai named CEO
* Futures up: Dow 0.46%, S&P 500 0.39%, Nasdaq 0.48%

(Adds comments, updates market action)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Dec 4 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were on course
to snap a three-day losing streak on Wednesday, following a
report that the United States and China were moving closer to
signing a 'phase-one' trade deal.
Washington and Beijing are getting close to agreeing on the
amount of tariffs to be rolled back, Bloomberg reported on
Wednesday, a day after comments from President Donald Trump and
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross dampened hopes of a possible
near-term agreement. The comments had pushed all the three major stock indexes
further away from last week's record highs that were fueled by
optimism that an interim deal between the two countries was in
the works. The S&P 500 index .SPX is now about 2% away from
its record high.
"China and United States are playing a game of poker," said
Mark Grant, chief global strategist at B. Riley FBR Inc.
"They make these comments on hopes of moving the other side
and it's difficult to figure out what the reality is, but these
certainly move the market if they look more promising or less
promising everyday."
The back-and-forth on trade has also made investors wary
after the final month of 2018 was the worst December on Wall
Street since the Great Depression. Tariff-exposed semiconductor companies attempted a comeback
on Wednesday, with Micron Technology Inc MU.O , Nvidia Corp
NVDA.O and Intel Corp INTC.O rising between 0.5% and 1.5% in
premarket trading. Shares of Apple Inc AAPL.O gained 0.6%.
Markets had a slight knee-jerk reaction to the ADP National
Employment Report, which showed U.S. private employers added the
fewest jobs in six months in November, well shy of economists'
expectations. A reading of the ISM services PMI set to be released later
in the day is expected to be 54.5 in November, compared to 54.7
in October.
At 8:36 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 126 points, or
0.46%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 12 points, or 0.39% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 39.5 points, or 0.48%.
Among stocks, Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O rose 0.6%
as Sundar Pichai took over as chief executive officer after
Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped aside. Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N gained 1% after it said on Tuesday
that recent tests showed that Johnson's Baby Powder was free of
asbestos. Campbell Soup Co CPB.N fell 1% after lowering its sales
forecast for fiscal 2020.