LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Stocks are set to start higher despite the strident tone coming from some Chinese officials in the ongoing trade war between Beijing and Washington.
Overnight, China's vice foreign minister, Zhang Hanhui, reportedly said that Beijing was against the use of "big sticks" like sanctions, tariffs or protectionism.

"We oppose a trade war but are not afraid of a trade war. This kind of deliberately provoking trade disputes is naked economic terrorism, economic homicide, economic bullying," Zhang reportedly said.

He also accused the US of "economic terrorism".

Against that backdrop, and given the recent inversion in the US Treasury yield curve on the back of global growth concerns triggered by the trade spat, investors were waiting on a speech from the US central bank's number two official, Richard Clarida.

Clarida was due to speak at The Economic Club of New York at 1800 BST, with traders looking for guidance on what the Federal Reserve's next steps might be.

As of 1134 BST, S&P 500 mini futures contracts were higher by 12.25 points to 2,792.25, alongside a gain of 81.00 points to 25,190.0 for the Dow Jones mini.

"This Thursday, China has ramped up trade rhetoric aimed at Washington," said Dean Popplewell, Vice President of Market Analysis at Oanda.

"The much-watched yield gap between U.S 3-month T-Bills and 10's is sending a warning signal of impending recession now that it slid to a 12-year low yesterday, Popplewell added.

And while it was not necessarily a new measure, on Thursday news also surfaced that China had stopped resuming purchases of US soybeans that had been undertaken as a show of good faith.

In terms of fresh economic data, readings are due out on weekly jobless claims, foreign trade in April and first quarter gross domestic product.

On the corporate front meanwhile, top officials at the Department of Justice want T-Mobile and Sprint to help launch a new wireless operator - with its own network - in exchange for greenlighting their $26.5bn tie-up, Bloomberg reported citing a person familiar with the matter.

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