China Deal Hopes Send US Stocks Up

The US Trade Representative's office said officials are "close to finalising" some parts of the a trade agreement with China announced two weeks ago.

Details have remained scarce and the two sides have not announced plans to roll back any more tariffs after Washington held off on some duty increases this month.

Yet a more "constructive" tone on trade lifted sentiment along with benign economic data and decent earnings, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities.

"The news is good and the reaction of the market is good," Hogan said.

The S&P 500 flirted with a record, but in the end finished at 3,023, a gain of 0.4 per cent but about three points below the all-time high set in July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.6 per cent to 26,958, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7 per cent to close at 8,243.

Among individual companies, Amazon slid 1.1 percent after reporting decreased quarterly earnings due to the cost of building up its one-day delivery program on its Amazon Prime subscription service.

But Intel surged 8.1 percent as it reported much better-than-expected earnings and boosted its profit forecast. The news also lifted other chip companies, including Micron Technology, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. (AFP)