Wall Street advances as Trump cools China rhetoric

By Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit (Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes advanced on Monday, rebounding from the previous session's sharp pullback, as investors returned to risk assets after President Donald Trump's softer tone eased concerns over renewed U.S.-China trade tensions. Aiding sentiment, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network on Monday that Trump was on track to meet his Chinese counterpart in South Korea as the two sides work on de-escalating trade frictions. "We're seeing a little bit of a bounce back from the fears that potentially a wider trade war with China was beginning and it seems like people are a little bit less fearful of that this morning," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management. Tensions flared up last week after China's rare earth export control expansion. In response, Trump said on Friday he would impose an additional 100% tariff on China's U.S.-bound exports, along with new export controls on critical U.S.-made software. The renewed friction led to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posting their steepest weekly declines in months. However, in a more conciliatory tone over the weekend, Trump said "it will all be fine" and the U.S. did not want to "hurt" China. China on Sunday blamed the U.S. for the escalation but did not roll out further countermeasures. The S&P 500 tech sector added 2.5%. Nvidia rose 2.9%. Broadcom surged 9.9% after partnering with OpenAI to produce the startup's first in-house artificial intelligence processors. The gains helped the broader semiconductor index add 4.8% and also boosted the tech-heavy Nasdaq. At 12:06 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 569.80 points, or 1.25%, to 46,050.01, the S&P 500 gained 99.56 points, or 1.52%, to 6,652.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 448.05 points, or 2.03%, to 22,655.47. The S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector added 1.9%, with Tesla rising 3.3% and Amazon up 1.8%. Consumer staples declined 0.7%. Among other stocks, JPMorgan advanced 2.1% after unveiling a $1.5 trillion strategic investment plan. Oracle gained 5.7% as at least two brokerages raised their price target on the AI cloud firm. Estee Lauder advanced 6.1% after a report that Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock's rating to "buy" from "neutral". Fastenal dropped 5.1% after the industrial supplies distributor missed third-quarter profit expectations. Investor focus is also on the earnings season that kicks off this week, with major U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo set to release quarterly results on Tuesday. The season will prove as a litmus test for U.S. markets and provide fresh clues on the economy at a time when major official data releases remain delayed due to a continuing government shutdown. In the Middle East, Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza and Israel sent home Palestinian detainees as part of a ceasefire deal pushed by Trump. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.73-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 12 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 62 new highs and 93 new lows. (Reporting by Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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