Stocks rebound, boosted by earnings and hopes of a US-China trade deal
U.S. stocks surged Thursday, with the Dow advancing nearly 400 points on robust earnings and optimism about a potential China-U.S. agreement to avert a trade war.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 396.32 points, or 1.58 percent, to 25,558.73. The S&P 500 rose 22.32 points, about 0.7 percent, to 2,840.69. The Nasdaq Composite was up 32.41 points, or 0.42 percent, at 7,806.52.
China said on Thursday a delegation would attend the next round of trade talks with U.S. counterparts in Washington later this month. China and the United States have gone back and forth with tit-for-tat tariffs and have threatened further tariffs on exports worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The announcement came from China’s Ministry of Commerce.
Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s top economic adviser, said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that “We've got a Chinese delegation coming next week – a kind of second-level delegation, so maybe they'll reopen those talks.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 43750.86 | -207.33 | -0.47% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 5949.17 | -36.21 | -0.60% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 19107.65077 | -123.07 | -0.64% |
In company news, Walmart shares jumped 9.3 percent after the retailer released its latest quarterly results, which topped expectations while the retailer also hiked its 2019 forecast.
Shares had risen at one point 11.07 percent, which is the highest intraday percent increase since Oct. 28, 2008 when the stock popped as much as 12.18 percent.
Apple shares were on pace for their third straight record close and their 22nd record close of this year.
On the economic agenda, housing starts and weekly jobless claims were released. U.S. initial jobless claims dipped 2,000 to 212,000 in the prior week, while U.S. housing starts rose 0.9 percent in July to 1.17 million.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks tumbled with the Dow falling by triple digits as traders worried about the escalating trade feud between the U.S. and Turkey, while shrugging off the latest positive U.S. economic data.
FOX Business' Ken Martin contributed to this article.