Investing.com – Wall Street rose higher on Tuesday as investors kept an eye on trade developments between the U.S. and China.
Signals from both sides were mixed, as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that China had called to ask to restart negotiations. Beijing has failed to confirm the calls, casting doubt on Trump's assertion. Still, both countries seem willing to think about resolving their differences, which helped boost investor sentiment.
The Dow jumped 121 points, or 0.5%, by 9:49 AM ET (13:49 GMT), while the S&P 500 rose 17 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 59 points, or 0.8%.
Sentiment is "still largely about trade and prospects of a deal with China and the markets are driven more by hope than anything else at this point," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James.
Drugmakers were higher after the open, as Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) gained 1.9% after it was fined less than expected after a ruling against it for its role in Oklohoma's opium crisis. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) rose 0.5%, while Merck (NYSE:MRK) was up 0.8%.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) jumped 1.3%, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 0.9% and Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) gained 1.9%.
Elsewhere, Boeing (NYSE:BA) fell 1% while JM Smucker (NYSE:SJM) lost 8.1% after the food maker cut its full-year earnings forecast and missed estimates for profit and sales.
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.8% to $54.11 a barrel, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.1% to 97.855. Gold futures were up 0.3% to $1,542.15 a troy ounce.
-- Reuters contributed to this report