Stocks surge as China trade war fears fade
Technology companies led a sharp rebound for U.S. stocks on Monday as the market made up some of its huge losses from last week.
Investors drew encouragement from signs that the U.S. and China are open to negotiating to avert a potential trade dispute. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed up by around 3 percent.
Monday was the Dow's biggest increase since August 2015. The blue-chip index lost more than 1,400 points last week.
Last week, global stock markets fell sharply amid fears of a trade war after President Donald Trump announced duties on $60 billion worth of Chinese goods.
On Friday, Beijing released a $3 billion list of U.S. goods targeted for possible retaliation over an earlier U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum imports. That prompted fears the spat might depress trade worldwide and set back the global economic recovery.
China's government has since said it is open to negotiating with Washington following a news report indicating that U.S. officials have submitted a list of market-opening requests. A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, didn't confirm the report by The Wall Street Journal but said at a regular briefing, "Our door for dialogue and discussion is always open."
The Journal said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and China's economic czar, Vice Premier Liu He, were leading negotiations. It said American market-opening requests as a possible condition of a settlement covered the auto, finance and semiconductor industries.
Technology companies recouped some of the sectors lefty losses last week. Microsoft (MSFT) rose $6.60, or 7.6 percent, to close at $93.78.
Financial stocks surged as bond yields rose. Higher yields are good for banks because they drive up interest rates on mortgages and other loans, making them more profitable for lenders.
Shares in Facebook (FB) managed to end its slide following last week's tumble even as the social media giant faces new questions about collecting phone numbers and text messages from Android devices. The Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it's investigating Facebook's privacy practices, including whether the company engaged in "unfair acts" that cause "substantial injury" to consumers. The stock, which took a big hit last week, had fallen again before clawing back to end higher by the close.
