US stock index futures recover

US stock index futures edged higher on Monday as US President Donald Trump moved to ease trade tensions with China, soothing investor nerves after intense feuding between the world's top two economies last week sent stocks into a tailspin, reports Reuters.

The benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX logged its worst run of weekly losses on Friday since a selloff in late May after both sides threatened to slap more tariffs on each other's goods and Trump told US companies to look for alternatives to doing business with China.

In a change of stance, Trump said on Monday that Beijing had contacted Washington overnight to say it wanted to return to the negotiating table.

Shares of tariff-sensitive stocks including Apple Inc and Boeing Co rose more than 1.5 per cent each in premarket trading.

Chipmakers, which are heavily reliant on China for their revenue, also rose in early trading. Intel Corp, Qualcomm Inc, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp were up between 1.4 per cent and 3 per cent.

Worries about the global economy slipping into recession and uncertainty over the pace of US interest rate cuts have made investors nervous about how far the longest cycle of US expansion can continue. The S&P 500 closed about 6 per cent off its record high on Friday.

However, a batch of strong retail earnings from those including Walmart Inc and Target Corp in the past weeks have reinforced confidence in domestic growth.

Data from the Commerce Department, due at 08:30 a.m. ET (12:30 p.m. GMT), is likely to show overall orders for durable goods rose 1.2 per cent in July, after increasing 1.9 per cent in June.