
June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday as Hewlett Packard Enterprise's results fanned AI optimism and tech shares gained, while investors awaited fresh data to better gauge the economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Shares of HPE HPE.N rose nearly 6% in premarket trading as demand for the company's artificial-intelligence servers and hybrid cloud segment helped it beat estimates for second-quarter revenue and profit.
AI chip leader Nvidia NVDA.O rose 1%, extending gains from early this week. Other chipmakers including Broadcom AVGO.O and Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O also climbed.
A gauge of global stocks .MIWD00000PUS touched record highs despite uncertainty around U.S. trade policies.
Washington doubled its tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Wednesday, which is also the target Trump had set for trading partners to make their best offers to avoid other punishing import levies from taking effect in early July.
The tariffs on imported steel and aluminum will jump to 50% from the 25% rate introduced in March.
Investor focus is squarely on tariff negotiations between Washington and its trading partners, with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping expected to speak sometime this week as tensions between the world's top two economies simmer.
"All eyes are on China given it is currently the biggest loser from Trump's new trade policy, and it looks like we're still some way off from a deal between the two countries," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
At 06:03 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were up 60 points, or 0.14%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 12 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 37.75 points, or 0.17%
May was the best month for the S&P 500 index .SPX and the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC since November 2023, thanks to a softening of Trump's harsh trade stance.
With fresh tariff announcements in place, the S&P 500 remains about 3% away from its record highs touched in February.
Barclays joined a slew of other brokerages in raising its year-end price target for the S&P 500, pointing to easing trade uncertainty and expectations of normalized earnings growth in 2026.
Data scheduled for Wednesday includes ADP National Employment data for May as well as S&P Global and ISM's services sector activity readings for May.
Ahead of a U.S. central bank meeting next week, monthly jobs data due on Friday will likely offer more signs on how trade uncertainty is affecting the U.S. economy.
Among other early movers, Wells Fargo WFC.N shares rose 3.6% after the U.S. Federal Reserve removed a $1.95 trillion asset cap imposed in 2018 following years of missteps.
Shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike CRWD.O fell 6.9% after it forecast quarterly revenue below estimates.