Wall Street Raises Hope for Trade Agreement Between US and China By Reuters

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) – US stocks continued to rise at the previous trading session on Wednesday, fueled by growing expectations that the US and China could reach an agreement during ongoing trade talks, the data on inflation also benign trust.

"Until here, everything is fine," said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, about the US-China trade talks in Beijing, a day after the announcement of President Donald Trump's decision to leave the deadline set for March 1st to be processed.

Trade-sensitive industries grew by 0.5%, while chip makers, which are largely dependent on China, also advanced, with the Philadelphia Flea Index up 0.4%. .

"Trade negotiations are going well, we are focusing today on trade and the government shutdown, and both things seem to be moving forward," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

The US House of Representatives will vote Thursday on a bipartisan bill to fund the government, including border security, before Friday's deadline to avoid a further partial closure of federal agencies.

It was still unclear whether Trump was going to sign the deal, but a source close to the situation said that he would probably do it.

Consumer prices in the United States remained unchanged for a third consecutive month in January, resulting in the lowest annual increase in inflation since more than a year and a half, which could allow the Reserve federal government to keep interest rates stable for some time.

"The figures for mild inflation will certainly be considered positive," Hogan said.

The data pushed US cash yields up, helping the financial sector to increase by 0.90, which provided the biggest boost to the US.

At 11:02 am, the increase was 193.35 points, or 0.76 percent, to 25,619.11. The S & P 500 rose 15.39 points, or 0.56%, to 2,760.12, and 28.37 points, or 0.38%, to 7,442.99.

Only the utilities sector was down.

Analysts' expectations of first-quarter earnings turned sour, after a broadly optimistic fourth-quarter profit. They now estimate that current quarter earnings are expected to fall by 0.3%, the first loss since the second quarter of 2016.

Dish Network Corp lost 7.4%, the highest among S & P companies, after the US provider of satellite television services lost more subscribers than pay-TV subscribers in the fourth quarter.

TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 was a good second, down 7.3% as the quarterly profit of the online travel company was exceeded.

Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 grew 5.2% after the video game maker announced a share buyback plan, job cuts and investments to strengthen its product portfolio.

Increasing issues outnumbered decliers with a ratio of 1.94 to 1 on the NYSE and a ratio of 1.56 to 1 on the Nasdaq.

The S & P index posted 33 new highs over 52 weeks and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 55 new highs and nine new lows.