Investing.com – Wall Street opened higher on Thursday after comments from China helped ease trade war tensions, while revised data for the economy in the second quarter showed domestic consumption still growing strongly.
Chinese officials confirmed on Thursday that they are working with the U.S. to schedule talks in September. Chinese ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said the discussions should focus on preventing escalations and resolving trade issues calmly. The comments reassured participants that there would be no further escalations of the conflict but did nothing to stop the latest in a series of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods coming into force at the weekend.
The Dow jumped 281 points or 1.1% by 9:51 AM ET (13:51 GMT), while the S&P 500 gained 33 points or 1.2% and the Nasdaq composite was up 118 points or 1.5%.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) rose 1% after a UBS survey found that 43% of households intended to subscribe to the company’s Disney+ streaming service, which is much more than the 20% to 30% Disney projected. Guess? jumped 21.7% after its quarterly profit came in above forecasts due to stronger sales and improved expense management, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 1.5% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gained 2.1%.
Elsewhere, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) slumped 9% after it lowered its guidance for the rest of the year, citing the impact of higher tariffs on imported Chinese goods. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) fell 11.6% after comparable store sales growth ground to a halt and the company warned that scheduled tariff increases would hit profit margins over the rest of this fiscal year.
Stronger-than-expected earnings from Dollar General (NYSE:DG) and Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) also helped reinforce impressions of consumer strength, which was also reflected in the 4.7% growth in real consumer spending in the revised GDP data for the second quarter published earlier.
However, Oxford Economics analyst Gregory Daco warned that the strength of domestic consumption was "unlikely to last."
"Drag from business investment, trade and inventories is rising," Daco said via Twitter.
Stronger-than-expected earnings from Dollar General (NYSE:DG) and Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) also helped reinforce impressions of consumer strength, which was also reflected in the 4.7% growth in real consumer spending in the revised GDP data for the second quarter published earlier.
However, Oxford Economics analyst Gregory Daco warned that the strength of domestic consumption was "unlikely to last."
"Drag from business investment, trade and inventories is rising," Daco said via Twitter.
In commodities, crude oil rose 1% to $56.34 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.2% to 98.322 and gold futures were flat at $1,548.75 a troy ounce.