By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Major stock indexes rose on Thursday, with technology shares leading Wall Street higher as investors awaited further developments on the U.S.-China trade conflict, while the dollar slipped after recent gains.
Quarterly results from some top tech-related companies are still due in the coming days, with Alphabet, up 1.9%, expected to report after the closing bell. The S&P 500 technology sector was up about 3% and led gains among S&P 500 sectors.
U.S President Donald Trump said on Thursday that trade talks between the U.S. and China are under way, pushing back against Chinese claims that no discussions have taken place to ease the ongoing trade war.
Beijing also said earlier that the U.S. should remove all “unilateral tariff measures” against China “if it truly wanted” to solve the trade issue. The White House on Wednesday signaled it was open to reducing sweeping tariffs on China.
Trump’s tariff war has created much volatility for markets in recent weeks, with myriad announcements and changes on tariff plans.
“There’s still a lot of volatility but add to that a stock market that was oversold by virtually all measures,” said Thomas Martin, Senior Portfolio Manager at GLOBALT in Atlanta.
First-quarter earnings reports have been mixed, with businesses across multiple industries saying they’re increasing prices and uncertain about the outlook because of Trump’s trade war and policies.
Dove soap maker Unilever flagged weakening U.S. consumer confidence, while shares of International Business Machines slumped after the company said 15 of its government contracts were shelved under a cost-cutting drive by the Trump administration.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 414.12 points, or 1.05%, to 40,021.52, the S&P 500 rose 95.32 points, or 1.78%, to 5,471.18 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 395.37 points, or 2.37%, to 17,103.42.
Economic data on Thursday showed, among other things, the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose marginally last week, suggesting the labor market remained resilient.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 10.45 points, or 1.29%, to 818.66. The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.36%.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.5%. Reuters reported that Japanese tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa was making final arrangements to visit the United States from April 30 to hold a second round of talks with his counterpart.
Investors also weighed the possibility of a first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in June.
Fed Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack on Thursday called for patience on monetary policy given high levels of uncertainty, but did not rule out an interest rate cut in June, depending on economic data.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 7.8 basis points to 4.309%, from 4.387% late on Wednesday.
Over the last week, Trump has made verbal attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, then retracted calls for his resignation.
The dollar eased against major currencies. The euro was up 0.63% against the dollar at $1.1383. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.58% to 142.61.
Spot gold gained, while oil prices also rose as investors weighed the weaker U.S. dollar. Brent crude futures rose 43 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $66.55 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 52 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $62.79.
(Additional reporting Alun John in London and Davide Barbuscia in New York and Rae Wee. Editing by Aurora Ellis and Nick Zieminski)
