Stocks rally on Trump acquittal, tariff cuts

U.S. equity futures are rising following President Trump's Senate trial acquittal and China reducing tariffs on U.S. imports.

The major futures indexes are indicating a gain of 0.4 percent when trading begins on Wall Street.

Markets are also boosted by strong U.S. corporate earnings. That helped to dampen fears about the impact of sweeping Chinese efforts to contain a viral disease as the death toll rose.

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Trump was acquitted after a rare trial before the U.S. Senate on charges of abuse of office following accusations he pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a potential rival in this year's presidential election.

China announced tariff cuts on $75 billion of U.S. imports including auto parts in response to similar American reductions in a trade truce. That followed the signing of the “Phase 1” agreement in their fight over Beijing's technology ambitions and trade surplus.

CHINA TO HALVE TARIFFS ON SOME U.S. IMPORTS AS VIRUS RISKS ESCALATE

Meanwhile, Chinese state TV said the government will cut value-added taxes and offer low-interest loans to help businesses weather a downturn caused by anti-virus measures that have depressed travel, retail sales and other industries.

Tokyo's Nikkei jumped 2.6 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.6 percent and China's Shanghai Composite gained 1.7 percent.

In Europe,  London's FTSE gained 0.4 percent, Germany's DAX added 0.7 percent and France's CAC was up 0.7 percent.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	44782	-128.65	-0.29%
SP500	S&P 500	6047.15	+14.77	+0.24%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	19403.947849	+185.78	+0.97%

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.4 percent, reaching a new high for a second day.

Investors got encouraging news about the U.S. economy on Wednesday when payroll processor ADP said that private U.S. companies added 291,000 jobs in January, a big increase from December.

PRIVATE SECTOR JOB GROWTH BLOWS PAST WALL STREET'S EXPECTATIONS IN JANUARY WITH 291,000 ADDED

Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of business activity by service sector companies increased in January, an indicator of continued steady expansion of the economy.

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Ford slumped 9.5 percent after the automaker reported weak fourth-quarter earnings to cap off a disappointing year.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.