Investing.com – Wall Street rose in early trading on Thursday, boosted by news that the U.S. and China have agreed to hold high-level trade talks next month, a development that raised hopes of a de-escalation of the trade war.
The talks were agreed to over the phone, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said, which was confirmed by a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office. No terms of the talks were given.
U.S. tariffs on over $100 billion worth of Chinese goods went into effect on Sept. 1 and plans to increase rates to 30% from 25% on another $250 billion worth of Chinese imports are set for Oct 1.
The Dow jumped 397 points or 1.5% by 9:49 AM ET (13:49 GMT), while the S&P 500 gained 33 points or 1.2% and the Nasdaq composite was up 103 points or 1.3%.
Industrial bellwether Boeing (NYSE:BA) rose 1.8% while Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) gained 3.1%. Chipmakers, which are sensitive to tariffs, surged higher after the open, with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Nvidia up over 4%. The sector had received an upgrade from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) analysts on Wednesday, who said they expect a strong rebound to global demand for chips in the second half of this year.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 2%, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inched up 1.3%, the broader macro backdrop outweighing new of yet another privacy lapse that exposed the phone numbers of 419 million users.
Messaging software group Slack slumped 15% after it forecast a slightly larger-than-expected loss per share for the fiscal third-quarter in its first earnings report since going public.
Mallinckrodt (NYSE:MNK) tumbled 42.7% after Bloomberg reported that it could file for bankruptcy as it prepares to face a wave of opioid-related lawsuits.
Elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reported that the parent of WeWork is considering slashing its valuation ahead of an initial public offering expected later this month. The WSJ said the valuation may be as low as $20 billion, less than half the $47 billion registered at its last private round of funding. The WeCompany's IPO prospectus was poorly received last month, with many pointing to the lack of a clear path to profitability and to governance risks arising from a share structure that leaves founder and chief executive Adam Neumann in near-total control of the company even after the IPO.
Elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reported that the parent of WeWork is considering slashing its valuation ahead of an initial public offering expected later this month. The WSJ said the valuation may be as low as $20 billion, less than half the $47 billion registered at its last private round of funding. The WeCompany's IPO prospectus was poorly received last month, with many pointing to the lack of a clear path to profitability and to governance risks arising from a share structure that leaves founder and chief executive Adam Neumann in near-total control of the company even after the IPO.
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.9% to $56.78 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.3% to 98.088 and gold futures declined 1.5% to $1,536.45 a troy ounce.