Wall Street finishes higher on trade, ECB stimulus hopes



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By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, September 12 (Reuters)Wall Street advanced on Thursday and the S & P 500 ended the session close to its all-time high, supported by the positive development of the China-China trade front and the promise of stimulus packages. the European Central Bank.

Technology gains led the S & P 500 and Nasdaq up, while finance helped the Dow Jones, which closed for the seventh consecutive year, its longest streak of wins since May.

Shares rose worldwide as China and the United States made concessions in anticipation of the planned talks in Washington next month, with the aim of mitigating a trade war that devastated the markets and fueled fears of recession for months.

US President Donald Trump has agreed to delay tariff increases on billions of Chinese goods for two weeks, after China has exempted tariffs on a basket of US imports and promised to buy more American agricultural products.

"It's good that (the United States and China are talking) and that the animosity is less great, "said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president of Wedbush Securities in San Francisco. The concessions that have been made are immaterial, but their minds are what the market sees as more important. "

The European Central Bank (ECB) has rapidly boosted investor confidence by promising to continue to stimulate the struggling economy of the euro zone through asset purchase.

David Carter, director of investments at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York, expressed skepticism about the potential benefits of an additional stimulus.

"At this point in the cycle, we do not know whether further easing of the ECB or Fed will have a significant fundamental impact, as rates have been so low for so long," said Carter.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to cut key rates by 25 basis points next week, which should help prevent signs of a slowdown in the US economy.

Such a slowdown was not apparent in the economic data released Thursday by the Ministry of Labor. Consumer prices rose 2.4% in August, well above the Fed's 2% inflation target and jobless claims fell more than expected last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI increased by 45.41 points, or 0.17%, to 27 182.45 points, the S & P 500 .SPx gained 8.64 points, or 0.29%, at 3,009.57 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 24.79 points, or 0.3%, to 8 194.47.

Among the 11 main sectors of the S & P 500, all but energy .SPNY and health .SPXHC closed in the dark, with materials .SPLRCM and real estate .SPLRCR displaying the largest percentage of winnings.

Industrial Bells Deere & Co LAIR and Caterpillar Inc CAT.N closed the session down 1.1% and 1.0%, respectively, after Wells Fargo downgraded its shares to "perform well"

Google parent Alphabet Inc actions GOOGL.O rose 1.2% after Google reached a $ 1.1 billion deal with the French authorities to resolve a tax evasion investigation and the legal victory of German publishers over royalty claims .

Shares of Tocagen Inc TOCA.O 77.7% drop after failure of experimental treatment of brain cancer by the drug manufacturer in an advanced study.

Increasing issues outnumbered declining issues on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.24 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.19 to 1 favored advances.

The S & P 500 recorded 40 new highs over 52 weeks and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 89 new highs and 27 new lows.

The volume of US trade amounted to 7.51 billion shares, compared to 6.79 billion on average for the full trading session of the last 20 trading days.

(Report by Stephen Culp edited by Bill Berkrot)

(([email protected]; 646-223-6076;))

The views and opinions expressed in this document are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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