Stocks – Trade-Talk News Gives Wall Street a Jolt

Investing.com - Stocks shot higher Tuesday on reports the United States and China will resume trade talks next week.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and aides were expected to leave for Shanghai on Monday, Bloomberg reported, with two days of talks scheduled. But the report suggested a deal wasn't near.

Nonetheless, the first face-to-face talks since May were good news for investors, already disposed to buying thanks to strong quarterly results from soft-drink giant Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), toymaker Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) and paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) and buying in Hershey (NYSE:HSY) ahead of its second-quarter earnings report due Thursday.

The S&P 500 jumped over 3,000 again and added 0.68%. The Dow Jones industrials also jumped 0.65%. And the Nasdaq Composite added 0.58%.

Wednesday could well be a drama-queen kind of day. Aerospace giant Boeing (NYSE:BA) reports second-quarter results before the open, and the earnings call will probably focus on issues besetting the grounded 737 Max jetliner. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) reports second-quarter earnings after the close.

Lastly, traders will have a chance to react to a Wall Street Journal report that the Justice Department is opening a broad inquiry into whether dominant technology firms are unlawfully stifling competition. That could threaten Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google business, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), the Journal said.

The probe will look at the practices of online platforms that dominate internet search, social media and retail services, the story said.

Shares of all four were higher (barely, in Facebook's case) in regular trading but were down about 1% each in after-hours trading.

Coca-Cola was the big Dow winner, hitting a 52-week high after handily beating Street estimates for the quarter. The company cited success with new and reformulated beverages.

Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) was the leader among S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 stocks, jumping nearly 10% and hitting a 52-week high as it said its tie-ins on products with Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) blockbuster films this summer have been highly successful and should continue for some time.

Twenty-two Nasdaq 100 stocks were lower on the day. Some, like Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), were modestly lower as some investors were ready to cash in profits. Both stocks have jumped more than 37% this year.

After the close, social-media company Snap's (NYSE:SNAP) shares were up more than 11% after losses narrowed and its user base grew in the latest quarter. Shares of chipmaker Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) were up 5.6% after hours after it beat estimates, even if lower than a year ago.

The one downside to Tuesday's bullishness was a disappointing existing-home-sales report from the National Association of Realtors. The seasonally adjusted sales rate in June of 4.69 million units was off 1.5% from May and 1.7% from a year ago. Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said sales were back to 2015 levels.

Homebuilder shares were pummeled. PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) fell 8.3%. DR Horton (NYSE:DHI) dropped 2.6%. Hovnanian (NYSE:HOV) slumped 10.5%.

The bullishness about the U.S.-China news pushed oil prices higher because a deal theoretically could boost global oil demand.West Texas Intermediate crude rose 49 cents to $56.71 a barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark, added 57 cents to $63.82.

Interest rates moved higher as investors shed bonds for stocks. The 10-Year Treasury yield rose to 2.079% from 2.043% on Monday.

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