US stock-index futures rose this morning, after US President Donald Trump reiterated that progress was made in talks with Mexico, even though “not nearly enough” headway had been made in efforts to secure the US southern border.

Further discussions are planned today, after officials failed to negotiate a deal, with tariffs set to begin on Monday if Mexico doesn’t take unspecified actions to stem the flow of migrants and illegal drugs to the United States.

Elsewhere, adding to concerns over the impact of the various trade disputes, speaking with reporters in Ireland, Trump added that China “wants to make a deal badly”, while threatening that the US is prepared to place tariffs on another $300 billion worth of imports from the Asian giant, if necessary.

These developments look to extend upon Wednesday’s gains, where, optimism that the US and Mexico could strike a deal to avert proposed tariffs prompted an extended move higher on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 advanced +0.87%, adding to gains from Tuesday’s rally, where stocks were bought-up following words from the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, who said the central bank would “act as appropriate to sustain economic expansion”.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite both saw similar gains of +0.82% and +0.74%, after having increased their value by +2.07% and +2.17%, respectively, a day prior.

In today’s economic calendar, Thursday includes; Weekly Jobless Claims, International Trade for April and a first-quarter Nonfarm Productivity figure all at 8:30am EST.

In corporate news; Beyond Meat (BYND), DocuSign (DOCU), Ollie’s Bargain Outlet (OLLI), J.M. Smucker (SJM), Ciena (CIEN), Signet Jewelers (SIG), Guess (GES) and Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV) are all expected to report their earnings today.

TODAY’S TOP HEADLINES
China & Trade: Trump says tariffs on China could be raised by another $300 billion if necessary. (CNBC)
President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that tariffs on China could be raised by another $300 billion if necessary. “Our talks with China, a lot of interesting things are happening. We’ll see what happens, I could go up another at least $300 billion and I’ll do that at the right time”, Trump said Thursday, according to Reuters, without giving details on what goods could be targeted.

Mexico & Trade: Trump Calls for Mexico to `Step Up’ as US Trade Talks Extended. (Bloomberg)
US and Mexican negotiators are set to resume talks Thursday with time running short to avert President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs next week. “We’ve told Mexico the tariffs go on” if no deal is made, Trump told reporters Thursday while traveling to France to attend a ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. “They have to step up to the plate”.

ECONOMIC CALENDAR
Today’s Economical Announcements.

08:30AM – ★☆☆ – Weekly Jobless Claims (Previous: 215,000)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Exports (Previous: 211.97B)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Imports (Previous: 261.97B)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Nonfarm Productivity (QoQ) (Q1) (Previous: 3.6%)

STOCKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Pre-Market Movers & News Related Stocks.

Cloudera (CLDR): [EARNINGS] Lost an adjusted 13 cents per share for its fiscal first quarter, smaller than the 23 cents a share expected. The cloud software company’s revenue missed forecasts, however, as did its current-quarter revenue guidance. The company also announced the retirement of CEO Tom Reilly.

Stitch Fix (SFIX): [EARNINGS] Reported quarterly profit of 7 cents per share, compared to a consensus estimate of a 3 cents per share loss. Revenue beat estimates, with the online styling service seeing a seventh consecutive quarter of 20% or more revenue growth.

Michaels Companies (MIK): [EARNINGS] Matched estimates with adjusted quarterly profit of 31 cents per share, with revenue coming in below forecasts. The company said it was not satisfied and was taking steps to improve its performance.

Ciena (CIEN): [EARNINGS] Beat estimates by 7 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 48 cents per share. Revenue came in well above Wall Street projections, helped by what Ciena calls “improving industry dynamics” as well as growing market share and competitive advantages.

J.M. Smucker (SJM): [EARNINGS] Reported adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.08 per share, beating consensus estimates by 13 cents a share, even though revenue fell below forecasts due to a stronger dollar and lower prices for its coffee and peanut butter brands. Smucker also gave a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast.

MongoDB (MDB): [EARNINGS] Lost an adjusted 22 cents per share for its first quarter, 2 cents a share smaller than the 24 cents a share loss projected by analysts. Revenue beat estimates, but the database software company gave weaker-than-expected current-quarter earnings guidance.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): [UPGRADE] Morgan Stanley upgraded the chip maker to “equal-weight” from “underweight,” citing near-term positive catalysts. The firm is still concerned, however, about what it considers overly optimistic projections for the second half of the year.

Kontoor Brands (KTB): [RATING] Bank of America initiated coverage on the VF Corp. spin-off with an “underperform” rating. It expects the maker of Lee and Wrangler jeans to miss growth forecasts due to a tough retail environment and under-investment in those brands.

Five Below (FIVE): [EARNINGS] Beat estimates by 11 cents a share, with quarterly profit of 46 cents per share. The discount retailer’s revenue was slightly above Wall Street forecasts. The company also raised its earnings forecast, even though the update now includes the impact of higher China tariffs.

Electronic Arts (EA): [EARNING] Rated “buy” in new coverage at Nomura Instinet, which points to EA’s product pipeline and strong competitive advantages in key sports franchises.

Canopy Growth (CGC): [RATING] Stifel Nicolaus rates the cannabis producer “buy” in new coverage, saying it represents the best investable opportunity among its peers to capitalize on growth in the industry.

Signet Jewelers (SIG): [EARNINGS] Earned an adjusted 8 cents per share for its latest quarter, compared to forecasts of a 23 cents per share loss. Revenue beat estimates, although a same-store sales decline of 1.3% was larger than the 0.8% forecast of analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Fiat Chrysler (FCAU): [NEWS] Withdrew its $35 billion offer to buy rival automaker Renault, saying political conditions in France would not allow the deal to proceed successfully.

Costco (COST): [NEWS] Costco reported a 4.2% increase in comparable-store sales for May, missing the 4.6% consensus estimate of analysts polled by StreetAccount.

Mondelez (MDLZ): [NEWS] Ended efforts to buy Campbell Soup’s Arnott’s biscuit brand.

MOMENTUM STOCKS
GAINERS: CPB, ROKU, MDB, TTD
DECLINERS: PVTL, MGNX

TODAY’S IPOs
GigCapital2 (GIX.U) (Price: 10) (Est. Vol: 130.0M)
GSX Techedu (GSX) (Low: 9.50, High: 11.50) (Est. Vol: 207.9M)