NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, helping Wall Street’s major indexes advance for the fourth consecutive week, as increased hopes the United States and China would resolve their trade dispute lifted shares across sectors.
The market was boosted after a Bloomberg report said China sought to raise its annual goods imports from the United States by a combined value of more than $1 trillion in order to reduce its trade surplus to zero by 2024.
The news followed a report on Thursday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was considering lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports. A Treasury spokesman denied Mnuchin had made any such recommendation.
A strong rally in January has put the benchmark S&P 500 index on track for its best monthly gain since March 2016. The S&P 500 is now 8.9 percent below its Sept. 20 record close after dropping 19.8 percent below that level - near the 20-percent threshold commonly considered to confirm a bear market - on Christmas Eve.
“It’s risk-on again,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York. “We’ve gotten an olive branch from China regarding trade. Obviously there’s been a very positive reaction from the market.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 336.25 points, or 1.38 percent, to 24,706.35, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 34.75 points, or 1.32 percent, to 2,670.71 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 72.77 points, or 1.03 percent, to 7,157.23.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.96 percent, the S&P 500 gained 2.87 percent, and the Nasdaq added 2.66 percent. All three
