Investing.com – Wall Street opened higher on Monday, as China and the U.S. agreed to put trade tariffs on hold.
The S&P 500 was up 22 points or 0.82% to 2,735.25 as of 9:42 AM ET (13:42 GMT) while the Dow composite increased over 291 points or 1.18% to 25,006.94 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell 72 points or 0.99% to 7,427.26.
The trade war between the U.S. and China is “on hold” as the two work on a trade agreement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday. The two countries had been engaged in a tit-for-tat over tariff disagreements over the last few months. However, China has yet to agree to cut the trade deficit despite President Donald Trump’s demand that the world’s second largest economy reduce its trade surplus by $200 billion.
In a tweet on Monday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump said a trade deal with China would happen and they had already agreed to buy American agriculture products.
In other political news, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview that the U.S. would demand major changes in Iran following America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, with the possibility of even tougher sanctions. The withdrawl from the Iran deal has left investors on edge, as it could have ramifications for U.S. and European companies that do business with Iran.
Technology stocks were the top gainers after the morning bell, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) surging 3.11% amid news that it was offering a new version of the Model 3 for double the price. Meanwhile Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) rose 4.84% while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 1.27% and Boeing (NYSE:BA) was up 2.71%.
Elsewhere Chinese internet company Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) fell 1.06% amid news that its chief operating officer Qi Lu was stepping down due to personal reasons.
In Europe stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell 36 points or 0.26% while in France the CAC 40 increased 29 points or 0.53% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 57 points or 0.75%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 19 points or 0.55% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 21 points or 0.21%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.19% to $1,288.80 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.49% to $71.72 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.05% to 93.63.