[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks advanced on Tuesday as markets hoped for progress in US-China trade talks while digesting the World Bank’s lowered economic growth forecast.
A second day of high-level talks between the United States and China in London stretched into the evening on Tuesday without any concrete announcement.
FHN Financial’s Chris Low pointed to upbeat comments from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, while also noting that “there was a TikTok channel associated with Chinese television suggesting that there are still some significant differences between the two sides.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.3 per cent at 42,866.87.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.6 per cent to 6,038.81, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also gained 0.6 per cent to 19,715.00.
The negotiations aim to keep the world’s biggest two economies on course for an accord after each side earlier this spring imposed draconian tariffs on each other.
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Citing trade tensions and the resulting policy uncertainty, the World Bank lowered its 2025 projection for global GDP growth to 2.3 per cent in its latest economic prospects report, down from 2.7 per cent expected in January.
Global growth and inflation prospects for this year and next have worsened because of “high levels of policy uncertainty and this growing fragmentation of trade relations,” said World Bank Group chief economist Indermit Gill.
“Without a swift course correction, the harm to living standards could be deep,” Gill added.
Investors will get a fresh reading on US inflation Wednesday with release of consumer price index data.
Among individual companies, Disney rose 2.7 per cent after disclosing that it reached an agreement on the pricing of NBC Universal’s 33 per cent stake in Hulu, resolving a years-long appraisal process.
Disney will pay an additional US$438.7 million for the stake. The transaction is expected to close on or before July 24.
Tesla shot up 5.7 per cent on anticipation of the company’s upcoming launch of self-driving vehicles in Texas. The electric vehicle company teased the introduction on Musk’s X social media platform.
Chip giant Intel surged 8.0 per cent on optimism about the company’s new technology. AFP
