By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Major stock indexes rose on Thursday, with technology shares leading Wall Street higher as investors awaited further developments in the U.S.-China trade conflict, while the dollar slipped after recent gains.
The S&P 500 technology sector jumped 3.5% on the day, the most of any sector in the benchmark index.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet were up more than 3% in after-hours trading following the release of its first-quarter results, including earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. The stock ended the regular session up 2.5%. Other results from top U.S. tech-related companies are still to come this earnings season.
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 on and changes to 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 overall 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 486.83 points, or 1.23%, to 40,093.40, the S&P 500 rose 108.91 points, or 2.03%, to 5,484.77 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 457.99 points, or 2.74%, to 17,166.04.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 11.65 points, or 1.44%, to 819.86. 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.
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.
