US stocks jump on China trade talks announcement

Sep 05, 2019: Wall Street stocks jumped early Thursday on news that the United States and China would resume high-level trade talks in October, mitigating fears of further escalation in the trade war.

The gains also came after data showed increased private-sector hiring in August. Markets will get a fuller employment picture on Friday when the Labor Department releases its jobs report for the period.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 26,738.25, up 1.5 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.1 percent to 2,970.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.3 percent to 8,078.02

Markets got a lift after China's commerce ministry said Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing's point man on trade, agreed to October talks in a call with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday.

Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said at a regular news briefing that there would be "comprehensive preparations" for the meetings by both sides and that the next round of negotiations would "strive to achieve substantive progress."

The announcement less than a week after both Beijing and Washington enacted new tariff measures on each other.

Among individual stocks, Slack Technologies dived 14.3 percent after it projected a larger loss in the third quarter than analysts expect.

Goldman Sachs gained 2.2 percent following a Wall Street Journal report of an exodus of firm partners as recently-installed Chief Executive David Solomon aims to restore exclusivity to the designation.

AFP/APP