Pay close attention. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the United States “is said” to propose another round of trade talks with China.
Thats not “There will be trade talk” or “China has accepted a U.S. proposal” or even “The United States has proposed” new trade talks.
Still any movement on this front is a plus–the possibility of talks is better than no talks at all.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was up 0.21% as of 11:40 a.m. New York time today. The more export sensitive Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.64%. The NASDAQ Composite was down 0.28%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has climbed 1.02%.
Energy shares also gained on worries about global oil supply. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 2.27% and international benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.81%.
The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) was up 1.27%. On the other hand, the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) was off 0.26% and the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) was lower by 0.35%.
The CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) was down 0.83% to 13.11.
