Rising trade hopes boost Wall Street, send chip stocks soaring
Reuters
Published Apr 03, 2019 03:29PM ET
Rising trade hopes boost Wall Street, send chip stocks soaring
By April Joyner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Wednesday, extending a strong start to the quarter as rising hopes of a trade deal with Beijing boosted investor sentiment.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that talks between the United States and China have progressed and that both sides hope to get closer to a deal this week.
Shares of chipmakers, which are heavily reliant on China for their revenue, especially benefited. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index jumped as much as 3% to a record high. The index was last 2.4% higher.
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) Inc shares gained 9.3%, the most on the S&P 500, and Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) shares rose 2.0% after Nomura Instinet started coverage of both the stocks with "buy" ratings.
The positive sentiment on trade outweighed underwhelming economic data.
The Institute for Supply Management came out with its U.S. services sector PMI for March, which was below estimates and at its lowest since August 2017.
Earlier, the ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) National Employment Report showed U.S. private employers added 129,000 jobs in March, below economists' estimates.
"It's the push-and-pull hope of a trade deal versus the stark reality of disappointing economic news," said Oliver Pursche, chief market strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.37 points, or 0.05 percent, to 26,192.5, the S&P 500 gained 4.52 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,871.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 45.12 points, or 0.57 percent, to 7,893.80.
The gains put the S&P 500 index just 2% below a record high in September as a dovish Federal Reserve and trade hopes set the stage for a strong start to the quarter.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) Co capped gains on the Dow, dropping 1.3% after Baird said it expects Wall Street to cut earnings estimates "considerably" after the company reports delivery numbers next week. The numbers could reflect the 737-MAX groundings following the Ethiopian crash, Baird said.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.64-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.52-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
Get The News You Want
The S&P 500 posted 57 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 79 new highs and 28 new lows.
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.