Investing.com – Wall Street opened higher on Monday as investor sentiment was bolstered by hope that the U.S. and China will sign a trade deal this month.
A trade deal could be formally signed around March 27, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
While details still need to be worked out, Washington and Beijing are closing in on agreements around China increasing imports of U.S. agricultural and chemical products, lowering tariffs on U.S.-made goods, and sanction relief. There is less detail on issues such as safeguarding intellectual property rights and ending state subsidies of selected companies and industries.
“The market is not celebrating yet because the deal isn't revealed," said Kim Forrest, senior portfolio manager at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"Investors are now looking at areas that would benefit, like technology, because there has probably been some sales in that area that has been put off."
The S&P 500 rose 12 points or 0.45% as of 9:31 AM ET (14:31 GMT), while the Dow gained 121 points, or 0.47%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 43 points, or 0.57%.
Technology stocks were among the top gainers, with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) up 1%, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gaining 1.9% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) ip 0.8%. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) jumped 1.4% amid reports that it plans to open grocery stores across the U.S.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) increased 1% after CEO Elon Musk said it would reveal its new SUV on March 14, while Micron (NASDAQ:MU) inched up 0.6% and Boeing (NYSE:BA) rose 0.4%.
Elsewhere, AT&T (NYSE:T) slipped 1.2% amid news that it is planning to revamp CNN’s digital operations, while Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) fell 0.5% ahead of its earnings results after the bell.
In commodities, gold futures slumped 1.1% to a five-week low of $1,284.75 a troy ounce while crude oil recovered 2% to $56.91 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.18% to 96.627.
-Reuters contributed to this report.