U.S. stocks rose in early afternoon trading on Thursday on hopes that top-level U.S.-China trade talks would yield at least a partial deal, while a rise in Apple’s shares lifted the technology sector.
Wall Street’s main indexes moved higher after President Donald Trump tweeted he would meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday for further trade talks.
“The tweet … is giving market participants a reason to believe that perhaps a trade deal or at least a partial deal might be announced as early as tomorrow,” said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
Separately, Liu said Beijing was willing to reach an agreement with Washington to prevent any further escalation in the trade war, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
A senior U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said U.S. and Chinese negotiators were working towards an “early harvest” of confidence-building agreements, including one to avoid currency manipulation.
“Some sort of agreement towards currency is fine, but it would not get us anywhere near from where we started this issue,” Pavlik said.
The latest comments fueled optimism that had been dulled earlier after China urged the United States to stop unreasonable pressure on Chinese companies, while the South China Morning Post reported that the two sides made no progress in deputy-level trade talks earlier in the week.