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* S&P 500 ~2% away from all-time high
* China stimulus, Mexico tariff suspension drive rally
* Symantec falls on Morgan Stanley downgrade
* Futures up: Dow 0.54%, S&P 0.59%, Nasdaq 0.89%
(Updates prices, adds comments)
By Aparajita Saxena
June 11 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to edge back toward
record territory on Tuesday, as signs of more fiscal stimulus
from China and some easing of last week's tensions around Mexico
buoyed investors' appetite for risk.
Equity index futures were higher across the board in a
signal that Wall Street's week-long recovery from a 6% loss in
May was intact.
Since the start of June, the S&P 500 .SPX has risen for
five straight days and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
for six days, its longest winning streak in 13 months.
"The market right now is continuing to move to the upside.
There is a combination of factors playing, there was Mexico
tariffs being lifted, and the Chinese stimulus plan today," said
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities in New York.
Investors, worried by the prospect that President Donald
Trump's hard bargaining on trade with Beijing and others could
push the economy back into recession, remained on edge after a
U.S. pivot back on its tariff threat against China overnight.
Trump said late on Monday he was ready to impose another
round of tariffs on Chinese imports if there was no progress in
talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit.
The U.S. President has said he expects to meet Xi at a June
28-29 summit in Osaka, Japan, although China is yet to confirm
any such meeting.
China helped drive a rally in Asian and European shares on
Tuesday after it allowed local governments to use proceeds from
special bonds for major investment projects in a bid to support
its slowing economy.
The news also lifted U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group
Holdings BABA.N , JD.com Inc JD.O and Baidu Inc BIDU.O ,
which rose about 2% in premarket trading.
While trade-sensitive Caterpillar Inc CAT.N rose 2.2% and
Boeing Co BA.N gained 0.6%.
The marquee FAANG group of stocks - Facebook Inc FB.O ,
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Netflix Inc
NFLX.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O - climbed between 1% and
1.6%.
Investors cheered the news on Mexico on Monday, putting the
S&P 500 index .SPX about 2% away from its early May record
high.
At 8:54 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 142 points, or
0.54%. S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 17 points, or 0.59% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 66.75 points, or 0.89%.
Sentiment was also helped by expectations of a cut in
interest rates by the Federal Reserve in July.
Symantec Corp SYMC.O fell 5.5% after Morgan Stanley
downgraded the antivirus software maker's stock to "underweight"
from "equal-weight" on increased competition.
Data showed U.S. producer prices increased solidly for a
second straight month in May, pointing to a steady pickup in
underlying inflation pressures and likely supported the Fed's
view that the weak inflation readings are probably transitory.