Wall Street indexes rose on Wednesday thanks to the positive corporate and trade news.
The blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average grew by over 150 points, driven by Caterpillar's strong performance. The broader S&P 500 rose by 0.54%. The technology index Nasdaq Composite moved up by 0.95% thanks to a rise in the share price of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet.
The Wall Street Journal reported that China is working on expanding foreign companies' access to its domestic market - a signal for smoothing trade disputes between Beijing and Washington.
On Tuesday, the US President Donald Trump said he would intervene in the US justice ministry case against Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou if it would help the US interests on trade talks between Washington and Beijing. The head of state has also confirmed that he does not intend to increase duties on Chinese imported goods during the talks.
The market sentiment improved after the news that China plans to cut tariffs on imports of US-produced cars. An American official told that the authorities in Beijing have sent a signal for the decrease in duties, but Washington still has to wait for the formal approval of the documentation.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Chinese state-owned companies have bought at least 500,000 tonnes of US soybean on Wednesday.
Investors seemed to shrug after British Prime Minister Theresa May won a confidence vote from her Conservative party as 117 of her lawmakers said she was no longer the right leader to implement Britain's exit from the European Union. Theresa May had failed to reach a Brexit deal this week, creating uncertainty for investors as it opened up the possibility for a delay to Brexit or even another referendum on membership.
Next week all eyes will be on the Fed, which is expected to raise interest rates at its meeting, but the prospects for 2019 are uncertain
Coporate performance
The shares of Caterpillar and Boeing rose by more than 1%, both of which are seriously oriented to foreign markets and accordingly strongly influence all news from the trade front.
The banking sector also performed well on Wednesday, with serious growth registered by J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup.
Shares of the retailer Lowe rose by 2.9% after the company announced a buyback of shares worth 10 billion USD and confirmed its profit forecast for fiscal 2018.
The stocks of Apple rose by 0.28%, expanding its health expertise to managing diseases. Apple has hired 40 to 50 doctors to work with a various team as the firm pits itself as a contender in the health tech field. The company has made clear that it wants to compete in the medical arena, with the recent launch of an ECG app on the Apple Watch Series 4, and the investment in a new personal health data platform.
The stocks of Microsoft rose by 0.45%, while stocks of Alphabet and Amazon rose by 1.14% and 1.24%, respectively.
The last member of FAANG, Netflix, reported the strongest stocks growth during the session. The market capitalization of the video streaming company rose by 3.6%, after releasing some successful new titles in its content network.
Tencent Music IPO
Tencent Music made its long-awaited IPO last night at the low end of a proposed range of 13-15 USD. Shares were recently trading around 14. Tencent Music is China's largest music streaming service, which debuted on New York Stock Exchange. The listing raised about 1.1 billion USD. The company's shares ended the day about 8% higher at 14 USD, giving the firm a market value of almost 23 billion USD, which is comparable to Spotify.
Tencent, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, said it plans to use the money to expand its music catalog, develop new services, market the company and finance potential investments.
The firm is backed by investors that include Spotify, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group and is majority-owned by Tencent Holdings.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://financeandmarkets.com/wall-street-indexes-rose-on-wednesday-thanks-to-the-positive-corporate-and-trade-news/