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* Nike dips as North America revenue disappoints
* U.S. Steel falls 7% on dour forecast
* Traders eye final Q3 GDP data
* Futures up: Dow 0.09%, S&P 0.01%, Nasdaq 0.06%
By Uday Sampath Kumar
Dec 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures ticked to fresh
record highs on Friday as investors stayed optimistic that
Washington and Beijing would sign a long-awaited trade treaty
early in the new year.
Wall Street again hit all-time highs on Thursday as U.S.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the initial trade deal
had been penned down and would be signed in early January,
dispelling fears of another escalation in the tariff dispute.
However, injecting a note of caution, Beijing later dodged
questions about specific details of the agreement, giving the
market little reason to go much higher than current levels ahead
of the Christmas holidays. The S&P 500 .SPX is up nearly 28% this year, on
expectations of improving trade relations between the world's
top two economies, a dovish Federal Reserve and upbeat economic
indicators. The benchmark index has gained 1.2% so far this
week, hitting a sixth straight intraday record high on Thursday.
At 7:01 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 26 points, or
0.09%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 0.25 point, or 0.01% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 5.5 points, or 0.06%.
Later on Friday, a report from the Commerce Department is
expected to show core personal consumption expenditures price
index rose 0.1% in November. A final reading of third quarter
GDP is expected at 8:30 a.m. ET.
In one of the last major corporate earnings results of the
year, Nike Inc NKE.N reported lower-than-expected growth in
North American revenue, sending shares of the world's largest
sportswear maker down 1.4% premarket.
U.S. Steel Corp X.N tumbled 6.8% after forecasting a
bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and saying it would
idle a significant part of its operations at a facility near
Detroit.
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