Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Thursday, as positive earnings news from Walmart and Cisco Systems put fears of trade disputes on the back burner, at least for a while.
The S&P 500 rose 13 points or 0.5% by 9:39 AM ET (13:39 GMT), while the Dow jumped 111 points or 0.4% and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 35 points or 0.5%.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stock gained 3.3% after it reported better-than-expected earnings per share due to a 37% increase in online sales, even though overall revenue was below expectations.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) jumped 4.1% as it topped analyst expectations and issued better-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter. Boeing (NYSE:BA) inched up 0.6%, while Uber (NYSE:UBER) rose 2% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) gained 0.8%.
The news helped offset concerns over China after U.S. President Donald Trump added to the pressure on Beijing by effectively banning telecoms equipment maker Huawei from the U.S. market. The Commerce Department also announced restrictions on U.S. companies' sales of components that Huawei needs, such as semiconductors.
Markets are still enjoying a measure of relief that the trade war doesn't look like getting any wider in the near term. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the U.S. is drafting an executive order that would put off any imposition of tariffs on imported European and Japanese cars for six months. At the same time, talks with Canada and Mexico on reducing tariffs on steel and aluminum have also made progress, according to various reports.
Elsewhere, Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) fell 0.3% after state fire investigators found its transmission lines caused the California wildfire that killed 85 people last year. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) slumped 0.6%, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slipped 0.5% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) lost 0.3%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,292.05 a troy ounce, while crude oil surged 1.2% to $62.74 amid tensions in the Middle East. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.2% to 97.532.