Investing.com - Wall Street opened higher on Wednesday, buoyed by continued trade optimism between the U.S. and China.
The S&P 500 rose 8 points, or 0.31%, as of 9:30 AM ET (14:30 GMT), while the Dow increased 56 points, or 0.24%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 22 points, or 0.32%.
The two countries wrapped up talks in Beijing, having extended the meetings to a third day. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said it was a sign that both sides are serious, while U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday that talks were going well.
Another meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is expected later in the month. The two largest economies in the world have until March 1 to make a deal before the U.S. plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes, which are are released at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT). Investors will peruse the notes for any indication of possible rate hikes in the coming year after comments last week from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who said the central bank would rein in monetary policy if needed.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up, rising 0.5% despite news that the company is cutting its iPhone production by 10% for the January-March quarter. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) inched up 0.12%, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) gained 1% and semiconductor company Micron (NASDAQ:MU) jumped 7%.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) increased 1.05% after it unveiled a faster, higher-flying plane aimed at reducing fuel consumption.
Meanwhile, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) fell 0.6%, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped 1.5%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.26% to $1,289.45 a troy ounce and crude oil increased 3.3% to $51.45 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slumped 0.56% to 94.94.