Investing.com - Wall Street started higher on Thursday, as potential U.S.-China trade talks helped investor sentiment.
The S&P 500 rose 11 points, or 0.41%, to 2,900.72 as of 9:37 AM ET (13:37 GMT), while the Dow increased 115 points, or 0.44%, to 26,114.34 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 64 points, or 0.81%, to 8,018.93.
China welcomed an invitation from the U.S. to hold trade talks later this month in an effort to stave off new tariffs. American officials extended an invite on Wednesday after news that China is planning to ask the WTO for permission to impose sanctions on the U.S. at a meeting next week.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened last week to impose tariffs on almost all Chinese imports, or about $467 billion in goods.
Technology stocks rallied, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rising 1.38% after it released its latest smartphones, while Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) increased 0.75%. Boeing (NYSE:BA) gained 1.32%, while Nike (NYSE:NKE) rose 0.67% and semiconductor company Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) surged 2.59%.
Elsewhere, supermarket chain Kroger (NYSE:KR) slumped 9.04% after its same-store sales missed estimates, while Walmart (NYSE:WMT) lost 0.65% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) dipped 0.28%.
In Europe stocks were mostly up. Germany’s DAX rose 58 points, or 0.48%, while in France the CAC 40 increased 14 points, or 0.27%, and in London the FTSE 100 was down 27 points, or 0.38%. Meanwhile, the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 16 points, or 0.50%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 jumped 75 points, or 0.81%.
In commodities, gold futures rallied 0.52% to $1,217.20 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures slumped 1.55% to $69.28 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, lost 0.38% to 94.46.