NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks on Wall Street logged modest gains on Tuesday as traders remained hopeful that the United States and China can work toward resolving their trade-related differences at the upcoming G20 Summit.
Oil prices remained weak, while the U.S. dollar, which has benefited from safe-haven flows this year amid increased uncertainty over global trade, rose against its peers.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump will have a dinner meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming G20 gathering in Argentina and held open the possibility that the two countries would reach a trade deal.
All three major U.S. indexes finished positive after spending much of the session in negative territory, as Kudlow said there is an opportunity to “turn the page” on a trade war with China.
His remarks followed Trump’s comments on Monday, when he said he expected to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from the current 10 percent and repeated his threat to impose tariffs on all remaining imports from China.
“People want to believe that something good is going to come from the G20” meeting, said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
“(But) the longer it takes, the more concern the market feels that this is never going to happen, or it’s just more rhetoric and people start to lose faith.”
U.S. stock options traders are braced for a surge in volatility around the G20 summit.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 108.49 points, or 0.44 percent,
