Australian shares poised to rise after U.S.-China trade deal, NZ edges up

    Jan 16 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to rise on
Thursday and possibly even cross 7,000 points for the first
time, after the United States and China inked a Phase 1 trade
deal, with many hoping it will defuse an 18-month row between
the world's two largest economies.
    Investors will also focus on quarterly reports from major
resource and energy players, South32 Ltd         , Whitehaven
Coal          and Woodside Petroleum          - the country's
largest listed oil and gas explorer. 
    The local share price index futures          rose 0.2%, a
47.8-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index        
close. The benchmark ended about 0.5% higher on Wednesday. 
    New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index         rose 0.1%
or 10.15 points to 11,686.82 in early trade.
    
       

 (Reporting by Shriya Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru
Editing by Chris Reese)