Investing.com - Wall Street rose Tuesday as news of talks between the U.S. and China boosted confidence that the two will make a trade deal next year.
The S&P 500 rose 33 points, or 1.7%, as of 9:33 AM ET (14:33 GMT), while the Dow increased 346 points, or 1.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 97 points, or 1.4%.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a call on Tuesday morning, China’s commerce ministry said.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that talks were "very productive.” Meanwhile, news that China is cutting its trade-war tariffs on American-made cars also helped boost investor sentiment. U.S. and China are in a trade ceasefire and have agreed not to increase tariffs until March 1 as the two countries negotiate a possible deal.
Markets had grown jittery over the last few weeks over a growing clash between the world's two largest economic powers. The arrest of a top executive at China's Huawei has also roiled global markets amid fears that it could further inflame the China-U.S. trade fight.
Technology stocks rallied after the opening bell, with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) up 2%, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rising 0.8% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gaining 0.5%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped 1.3%, while Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was up 2.1% and semiconductor company Micron (NASDAQ:MU) increased 3.3%.
Elsewhere, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inched down 0.1%, while Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) dipped 0.2% and personal shopping company Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) slumped 25.7%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.15% to $1,251.30 a troy ounce and crude oil jumped 2.4% to $52.25 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.02% to 97.20.