U.S. stocks pared back early gains on Monday, including a new intraday high for the S&P 500, but were still up on the day after Washington and Beijing agreed to refrain from escalating their trade dispute.
How are the benchmark indexes faring?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.15%[1] was up 30 points in afternoon trade, or 0.1%, at 26,625, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.42%[2] held onto a 0.4% gain, or 12 points, at 2,954. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.73%[3] was 62 points higher, or 0.78, at 8,068.
Earlier this morning, the S&P touched a new intraday high at 2,977.86, when it had risen as may as 36.1 points, or 1.2%. At its peak, the Nasdaq rose 144.2 points, or 1.8%, while the Dow had risen 290.68 points, or 1.1%.
The gains come after the Dow logged its best June since 1938 and the S&P 500 rang up its best June since 1955.
What’s driving the market?
After meeting China’s President Xi Jinping on Saturday at the G-20 leaders summit in Japan, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would maintain current tariffs but hold off on new ones[4]. Trump also said he would ease up on a ban on Huawei, allowing U.S. companies to sell their products to the China tech group, though the company will remain on a trade blacklist.
Trump said talks went “even better than expected” and that “we’re going to work with China where we left off.”
I had a great meeting with President Xi of China yesterday, far better than expected. I agreed not to increase the already existing Tariffs that we charge China while we continue to negotiate. China has agreed that, during the negotiation, they will begin purchasing large.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2019[5]
Stephen Innes, managing partner at Vanguard Markets wrote in a Sunday note that, “After the markets were stuck in trade-war limbo for the better part of two months, investors will breathe a massive, but exhausted, sigh of relief that both the U.S.-China opted to push the reset button and restart trade negotiation[s],”
Questions remain, however, as to which products U.S. companies[6] will be allowed to sell to Huawei, while investors have been given little information as to the timing of future trade talks and whether or when existing tariffs could be rolled back. The Commerce Department...