Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Monday on news of upbeat Chinese data and reports of trade talk progress.
The Dow gained 152 points or 0.6% by 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT) while the S&P 500 rose 18 points or 0.7% and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was up 60 points or 0.8%.
Overnight data showed that China’s Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' index, which gauges private-sector activity, registered its sharpest monthly increase since 2012. China has also said it will extend its suspension of tariffs on U.S.-made autos and include the opioid fentanyl in a list of controlled substances, increasing the chance of progress between the world's two largest economies as trade talks talks continue in Washington this week.
Investors seemed unmoved by U.S. data showing that retail sales unexpectedly fell in February, as an earlier boost from tax cuts and higher government spending waned.
Semiconductor companies gained after the opening bell, with Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) up 2.8% and Micron (NASDAQ:MU) rising 2.1%. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock was lifted 1.1%, as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inched up 0.8% as markets figured out what to make of its CEO Mark Zuckerberg's call for more government regulation of the Internet.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and other airline companies rose despite a system-wide outage that caused delays to flights.
Elsewhere, Kellogg (NYSE:K) fell 0.6% on news that it is selling selected cookies, fruit snacks and ice cream products to privately-held Ferrero Group for $1.3 billion.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,300.25 a troy ounce while crude oil jumped 0.8% to a new 2019 high of $60.88 a barrel before retracing a little. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, lost 0.2% to 96.635.