Wall Street’s main indexes hit session highs on Friday, in broad based gains led by technology stocks, as sentiment was lifted by an upbeat note in trade talks between the United States and China.
China’s state-run news agency said Washington and Beijing were making further substantive progress on trade talks.
The report came as a relief after news that a summit to seal a deal between the two sides will not happen at March-end, reports Reuters.
Chipmakers, which get a large portion of their revenue from China, rose, with the Philadelphia SE chip index up 2.87 per cent, while the broader technology sector rose 1.61 per cent.
Broadcom Inc jumped nearly 8.9 per cent and was the biggest boost to the S&P and Nasdaq, after the company’s quarterly profit beat analysts’ estimates.
At 12:51 pm ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 203.71 points, or 0.79 per cent, at 25,913.65.
The S&P 500 was up 20.54 points, or 0.73 per cent, at 2,829.02 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 78.85 points, or 1.03 per cent, at 7,709.76.
The benchmark S&P 500 is now just 3.6 per cent away from its September closing high.
Boeing Co rose 2.2 per cent after the company said a software upgrade for the 737 MAX aircraft will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
The world’s largest planemaker has tumbled about 11 per cent since its money-spinning 737 MAX jets were grounded globally following a recent fatal crash in Ethiopia.
Only the defensive real estate sector was trading lower.
Photoshop maker Adobe Inc fell 4.3 per cent after its current-quarter revenue forecast fell below analysts’ estimates.
Facebook Inc dropped 2.5 per cent after the social media giant said its Chief Product Officer Chris Cox would be leaving the company.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.60-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 2.30-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 59 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 74 new highs and 28 new lows.