Higher Open Likely For US Markets; Oil High

Higher open likely for the U.S. markets Friday, after main stock index futures, soared Friday morning riding on the optimism around trade talks between Washington and Beijing.

At around 7 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 59 points, hinting a gain of more than 66 points. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 also moved up marginally.

The progress in talks with China has been echoed in the words of the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who stated that he had a productive working dinner with Chinese officials in Beijing.

On the data side, personal income and core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data for February will be coming.

In quarterly results, CarMax and Blackberry will report their earnings.

Oil at a high

Meanwhile, oil prices jumped on Friday pushed by supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, driving crude markets to their biggest first-quarter gain since 2009.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures soared to $59.56 per barrel at 0211 GMT, up 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.

Brent crude oil futures also jumped 0.4 percent to $68.12 per barrel.

Brent futures are set to gain 27 percent in the first quarter, while WTI futures may wrest 31 percent gain in the first quarter.

Oil prices are solidly backed by the cuts enforced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies like Russia by holding back 1.2 million barrels per day (BPD) to maintain high prices.

“Production cuts from the OPEC+ group of producers have been the main reason for the dramatic recovery since the 38 percent price slump seen during the final quarter of last year,” observed Ole Hansen, head of the commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump urged OPEC to increase production to bring down high oil prices.

Asia markets close higher

In Asia, most Asian markets traded higher on Friday over hopes of a trade deal between Washington and Beijing.

China’s Shanghai Composite jumped 3.20 percent and the Shenzhen component zoomed 3.77 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index soared 0.94 percent in the last hours of trading.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.82 percent while the Topix index gained 0.56 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.59 percent while Australia's ASX 200 soared 0.07 percent.

The European stock markets also traded high on Friday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index jumped 0.7 percent at the start of the trading with most sectors in positive territory.

Market players have focused on trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing recovering from the earlier pressure of a potential U.S. recession.

Gold down

Gold slipped Friday marking its worst month since August 2018 after hit by a stronger dollar and equities.

Spot gold fell 0.1 percent to $1,288.56 per ounce by 0804 GMT. In the previous session, spot gold crashed 1.5 percent, which was the most in more than seven months. The U.S. gold futures fell 0.2 percent at $1,287.40 an ounce. The gold market is in a wait-and-see mode, according to analyst Jeffrey Halley of OANDA.