Investing.com – Wall Street inched forward on Friday as traders monitored trade developments between the U.S. and China, while easing monetary policy around the globe increased hopes that central banks will help soften the blow from the drawn-out trade war.
The Dow rose 62 points, or 0.2%, by 9:55 AM ET (13:55 GMT), while the S&P 500 gained 7 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 13 points, also 0.2%.
China cut its new one-year benchmark lending rate for the second month in a row on Friday, days after the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank reduced borrowing costs and left the door open for further monetary stimulus.
Hopes of stimulus and growing optimism about U.S.-China trade talks have helped calm investors' nerves. Trade talks continued for a second day on Friday, with Chinese delegates staying on to visit American farm regions next week.
Technology stocks were higher, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) up 1% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gaining 0.4%.
Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) was up 0.2% on news that the plant-based meat alternative company hired Sanjay Shah, Tesla'san (NASDAQ:TSLA) former head of solar, as its chief operating officer.
Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) rose 2% after it was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital Markets due to the positive impact of online marketplace’s most recent initiatives.
Elsewhere, Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) slumped 8.8% after it was rated as sell in new coverage by Pivotal Research, citing increasing competition in the streaming device business that will drive costs of devices to zero and put pressure on advertising revenue.
In commodities, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.3% to 98.153 and gold futures inched up 0.2% to $1,509.35 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures gained 0.6% to $58.52 a barrel.