Investing.com - Stocks surged to their highest levels since the end of July Thursday as investors cheered news that the United States and China planned to hold trade negotiations some time in October.
The news, which emerged Wednesday evening, represented the first thaw in relations between the countries in two months. In between, there have been multiple tariff increases imposed by both countries and angry rhetoric.
The S&P 500 finished up 1.3%. The Dow Industrials rose 1.41% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.75%.
The market was driven by gains in semiconductor stocks, big-tech stocks and bank stocks. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) were among the strongest chip stocks.
Big bank stocks were solidly higher, with gains ranging from 3.9% for KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) and 3.2% for Citigroup (NYSE:C) to 1.54% for US Bancorp (NYSE:USB).
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), up 2.2%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), up nearly 2% and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), up 1.76%, added 45 points alone to the Nasdaq 100 index, which was up 1.86% or 143 points.
In addition, high-end retailers, including Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) and Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL), moved higher.
The weakest sectors were consumer staples, pharmaceutical, utility and real estate stocks.
Among the eight losers among Nasdaq-100 stocks were PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX).
The market goes into Friday with lots of momentum, but not so much room to move higher before serious resistance levels present challenges. The day opens with the Labor Department's big jobs report, due at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.7%. Nonfarm payrolls, a key metric, are expected to rise by 160,000, down slightly from July's 164,000.
Tapestry (NYSE:TPR), owner of Coach leather goods, IPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP), a key maker of tools for manufacturing computer chips, Capri Holdings (NYSE:CPRI) (formerly Michael Kors) and fertilizer maker Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) were among the S&P 500 leaders.
Newmont Goldcorp (NYSE:NEM), oil-and-gas producer Concho Resources (NYSE:CXO), household products company Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) and Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) were among the biggest S&P 500 laggards.
Interest rates also moved higher as bond investors moved to stocks. The 10-Year Treasury yield jumped to 1.564% from Wednesday's 1.459%.
Gold futures fell more than 2% and oil futures gave up most of their early gains, but finished slightly higher.