Stock Market Open: US Stocks Open Higher On Trade Talks, Jobs

Stocks opened higher Thursday on surprising jobs numbers from ADP and word U.S.-China trade talks would resume next month.

Asian markets were flat or closed on the upside while worries over Brexit sent London’s FTSE lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened up about 300 points and by midday had surged 436.35 or 1.66% , while the S&P 500 was up 1.35% and the Nasdaq was up 1.58%.

Business messaging firm Slack Technologies (WORK) shares took a beating, plunging more than 14% after warning of slower revenue and increasing competition.

China’s state media reported high-level trade talks would resume early next month in Washington. Vice Premier Liu He spoke by phone with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Ministry of Commerce announced Thursday. Lower level talks were expected to begin within days.

The U.S. is in the middle of imposing 15% tariffs on some $270 billion of consumer goods from China, and China has retaliated with levies on soybeans, U.S. auto parts and other goods.

ADP reported the U.S. added 195,000 non-farm jobs in August, up 66,000 among small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Midsize businesses added 77,000 jobs and companies with more than 500 employees added 52,000. The only categories that lost workers were natural resources and mining (2,000) and the information industry (6,000). Education and health gained the most employees (58,000), followed by leisure and hospitality (42,000) and trade, transportation and utilities (39,000).

The Department of Labor reported initial jobless claims for the week ending Aug. 31 were up 1,000 from the previous week’s revised numbers to 217,000, with the four-week moving average 216,250, up 1,500 from the previous four-week average.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 2.12% and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.96%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off slightly at 0.03%.

In Europe, the London FTSE closed off 0.63% while the pound was up 0.64% against the dollar. The German DAX was up 0.84%.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.58 percent.