Stock Market Close: US Shares Soar On Hopes For China Trade Deal

Wall Street shook off political concerns Wednesday and pushed stocks higher on word from President Trump a trade deal with China could come sooner, rather than later.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added nearly 163 points to 26,970.71, up 0.61%. The Nasdaq Composite leapt 83.76 points to 8,077.38, up 1.05%, and the S&P 500 increased 18.27 points or 0.62% to 2,987.87.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 3.2 billion shares with 1,880 issues advancing and 1,033 declining. Eight-one stocks hit new highs and 21 hit new lows.

Leading the most actives were Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) and Bank of America (BAC).

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Trump told reporters the Chinese badly want to make a deal so it could happen “sooner than you think.” U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators are due to meet within two weeks following deputy-level talks last week.

Trump’s comments came just one day after he criticized China’s economic model, which he said is dependent on “massive market barriers, heavy state subsidies, currency manipulation, product dumping, forced technology transfers and the theft of intellectual property and also trade secrets on a grand scale.”

Trump also announced the first part of a new trade deal with Japan had been worked out and talks are underway on the second phase.

The White House earlier released a transcript of a call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky during which the president asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden over Biden’s urging the firing of a former Ukrainian prosecutor in 2015. Trump and supporters have been insinuating Biden made the request to protect a company for which his son worked.

The call is at the heart of a whistleblower complaint the administration decided against forwarding to Congress as required by law. The decision also prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to authorize an impeachment inquiry.

In other news, Saudi Arabia announced its production capacity had been restored just 10 days after an attack on its Aramco facility near Abqaiq and oil fields cut production in half. Capacity had been restored to 11.3 million barrels per day, the level at which it was operating before the Sept. 14 attack, which affected about 5% of the world’s daily supply.

Global markets were lower. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was off 1.28% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.36% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1%. Australia’s S&P/ASX dipped 0.56%.

London’s FTSE was flat, off 0.02%, while the German DAX fell 0.59% and the French CAC was off 0.79%. The British pound was off 1.13% against the dollar while the euro fell 0.71% and the U.S. dollar index was up 0.72%.

Crude oil futures dropped to $56.50 a barrel or 1.38% while Brent was unchanged at $61.43 a barrel. Gold futures fell 1.88% to $1,411.30 an ounce. Silver declined 3.59% to $17.96 an ounce.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.731% while the yield on the 30-year note rose to 2.18%.