By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P continued to chalk up gains Thursday, led by a sharp rise in technology stocks thanks to a surge in Twitter and improved trade sentiment as China cut tariffs on U.S. goods.
The S&P 500 rose 0.32% and Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.26%.
China will halve the levies on $75 billion of U.S. imported goods as part of its efforts to comply with the phase one trade agreement, China’s Ministry of Finance said.
The move eased investor angst over China's ability to live up to its commitments under the trade deal at a time when the coronavirus threatens to puncture an already slowing economy.
Beyond trade, a parade of better-than-expected corporate earnings encouraged investors to maintain their bullish bets on stocks.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) jumped 18% after the social media company's quarterly results topped estimates and strong user additions for the quarter suggested its efforts to purge its platform of bad digital actors are taking shape.
Elsewhere in tech, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) fell 1% after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected quarterly results, but warned that the impact of coronavirus in China could have a "material impact" on its near-term profits.
Estee Lauder (NYSE:EL) climbed 4% on the back of quarterly earnings and revenue that beat estimates, which offset a profit warning.
Shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 5% to claw back some losses from a day earlier, when its share price plummeted 17% after it announced a delay to deliveries in China as a coronavirus-led slowdown has weighed on activity.
Mattress maker Casper Sleep(NYSE:CSPR), meanwhile, got its public market debut off to a positive start, surging 30% after opening at $14.50. But the underwriters lowered the price range on the IPO twice yesterday amid questionable institutional demand.
In the first nine months of 2019, the company's losses widened to $67.4 million from $65.5 million a year earlier, according to the IPO prospectus.