Stocks – Wall Street Surges on Hope of Trade War De-escalation 

Investing.com – Wall Street rose for the third straight session on Friday, as investors were buoyed by hope that the trade talks between the U.S. and China will result in at least a partial deal to de-escalate the current stand-off between the two.

The rose 357 points or 1.4% by 9:48 AM ET (13:48 GMT), while the S&P 500 was up 39 points or 1.3% and the gained 118 points or 1.5%.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that talks between the two countries were going “really well,” which followed a tweet that he will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Lui He on Friday.

The news helped bolster markets after a few days of whiplash following conflicting reports on trade progress.

“It is still going to be a one step forward, two steps backward tone with the talks, but there are hopes of a de-escalation, “said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Companies with exposure to China were higher, with Apple (NASDAQ:) up 1.3%, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) gaining 3.3% and Intel (NASDAQ:) rising 2.3%. Tesla (NASDAQ:) surged 1.5%, while Slack gained 5% after it said its active daily users rose by 37% in September from a year ago.

Meanwhile oil companies were up after a report of attacks on an Iranian oil tanker caused futures to surge. Exxon Mobil (NYSE:) and Chevron (NYSE:) were both up 1%.

In commodities, the , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.5% to 97.928 and tumbled 0.8% to $1,488.80 a troy ounce. jumped 1% to $54.05 a barrel.

-Reuters contributed to this report

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.