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Wall Street's major indexes rose on Monday on optimism over trade talks between the United States and China, though they fell from session highs after President Donald Trump criticised the Federal Reserve's raising interest rates.
US stocks moved lower in the last 10 minutes of the session after Trump, in an interview with Reuters, said he was “not thrilled” with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and accused China and Europe of manipulating their respective currencies.
But stocks retained most of their gains from earlier in the day, as talks between the United States and China planned for later this week provided a boost to the trade-sensitive industrial sector. Industrial stocks rose 0.6 per cent.
The S&P 500 energy and materials indexes both rose 0.7 per cent as easing trade concerns also helped lift prices of oil and metal.
“What's working are things that would benefit from any relief on the trade side,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services in Atlanta. ”Industrials, materials and energy are all outperforming.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89.37 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 25,758.69, the S&P 500 gained 6.92 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 2,857.05 and the Nasdaq Composite added 4.68 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 7,821.01.
Central bank policies
This week, investors are turning their attention to central bank policies as the earnings season winds down.
The Federal Market Open Committee will release minutes from its August policy meeting on Wednesday. The minutes are expected to indicate the Fed's confidence in US economic growth and commitment to further interest rate increases.
Later in the week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other central bankers will meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. On their agenda is a discussion of the root causes of stubbornly low inflation, slow wage growth and weak productivity gains in the US economy
Shares of Nike Inc hit a record high of $82.42 after Piper Jaffray and Susquehanna raised their ratings on the stock. Nike shares ended the day up 3.0 per cent at $82.18. Intel Corp shares dropped 1.3 per cent after brokerage Cowen & Co said the chipmaker's disclosure of new security bugs in some of its microprocessors may push cloud companies to seek other suppliers.
Estee Lauder rose 3.4 per cent after topping quarterly profit and sales estimates as customers bought more of its high-margin Clinique and La Mer skin care products.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.36-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favoured advancers. The S&P 500 posted 50 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 114 new highs and 70 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 5.31 billion shares, compared with the 6.53 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
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