US STOCKS-Wall St set to rise again on trade deal hopes

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* Major stock indexes set to rise for second day
* Dollar General gains after raising FY profit forecast
* Nike rises on reported Goldman Sachs upgrade
* Futures up: Dow 0.29%, S&P 500 0.26%, Nasdaq 0.36%

(Adds comments, updates market action)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks looked set to open higher on
Thursday on brighter hopes of a preliminary trade deal between
the United States and China.
Headlines around trade suggested the world's two largest
economies were closer to agreeing how many tariffs would be
rolled back in a "phase one" trade deal, while President Donald
Trump said talks with China were going "very well". Wall Street's main indexes snapped a three-day losing streak
in the previous session on growing expectations of a trade deal,
putting the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX index just 1% away from an
all-time high hit last week.
"There doesn't seem to be any increased negative talk about
China so I guess the absence of that is allowing markets to
drift higher," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at
Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.
"In fact, it feels like both sides understand that reducing
some of the tariffs is what needs to happen."
However, if no agreement is reached soon, more tariffs on
Chinese goods will kick in from Dec. 15.
Shares of tariff-sensitive semiconductor companies looked
set to rise for the second straight day, with Micron Technology
Inc MU.O , Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD.O and Nvidia Corp
NVDA.O gaining about 1% each in premarket trading.
At 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 79 points, or
0.29%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 8 points, or 0.26% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 29.75 points, or 0.36%.
Investors also seemed to shrug off Wednesday's lackluster
readings on domestic services sector activity and private
payrolls growth as they await the Labor Department's non-farm
payrolls data due Friday. U.S. trade deficit dropped to its
lowest level in nearly 1-1/2 years in October, data showed on
Thursday. Among stocks, Dollar General Corp DG.N gained about 2.7%
after the discount store chain raised its full-year profit
forecast. Nike Inc NKE.N shares climbed 2% after a report said
Goldman Sachs upgraded the sportswear maker's stock to "buy"
from "neutral". Kroger Co KR.N dropped 2% as the supermarket chain
reported a 17% fall in quarterly profit.