Stocks – Wall Street Rises on Upbeat Trade News  

Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Friday, as investors turned optimistic on upbeat comments on the U.S.-China trade front.

The was up 85 points or 0.3% by 9:48 AM ET (13:48 GMT), while the gained 10 points or 0.3% and the rose 37 points or 0.4%.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Thursday that the U.S. and China were close to securing a trade deal. His comments come after a week of volatility after reports that the two sides had hit a snag over trade talks. Chinese media on Friday fleshed out arguments that Chinese demand for U.S. farm products is nowhere near the level of purchases that Washington is insisting on in order to seal a partial ‘phase-1’ deal.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday that U.S. and Chinese officials would hold a call later in the day, but added that the U.S. could still impose tariffs on Chinese goods, which are scheduled for Dec. 15.

“We have been here so many times where the market gets its hopes up and then it gets crushed,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“But certainly with an election coming up next year, you would want to have all these things behind you, so a mini-deal or a trade truce makes a lot of sense.”

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:) was among the top gainers, rising 8% after the open as its strong fourth-quarter earnings were helped by increased demand for its processor chips. Grubhub (NYSE:) jumped 3.8% after Shake Shack (NYSE:) announced that it is launching a nationwide delivery service with the company, while Nike (NYSE:) rose 1.3% after upgraded its quarterly dividend. JC Penney Company (NYSE:) was up 6.3% after its loss for the last quarter was smaller than expected, while comparable sales fell slightly less than forecast, at 6.6% compared to the 7.7% drop expected.

Elsewhere, Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:) slumped 10% after it reported a 23% decline in revenue and announced plans to slow its expansion.

In commodities, the , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1% to 97.900 and slipped 0.5% to $1,466.15 a troy ounce. rose 0.3% to $56.93 a barrel.

-Reuters contributed to this report

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