US stocks rise again on more benign Trump tone on China

NEW YORK - Wall Street stocks posted solid gains for a second straight session on April 23 as markets continued to cheer the Trump administration’s more conciliatory tone on trade negotiations with China.

Equities spent the entire day in positive territory as market watchers also pointed to Mr Trump’s statements that he had no plans to fire Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.1 per cent at 39,606.57.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.7 per cent to 5,375.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 2.5 per cent to 16,708.05.

A day after the International Monetary Fund

lowered its global growth outlook

the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book of economic conditions said the economic outlook had “worsened considerably” in several US districts due to uncertainty about tariffs.

But markets are rallying on “any headline that’s less negative on trade,” said Mr Art Hogan, of B. Riley Wealth Management.

“We’ve moved into a slightly more positive position but we still don’t know what the endgame will be on trade,” Mr Hogan said.

On April 23,

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters

Washington is “not yet” speaking with Beijing on tariffs, calling today’s prohibitively high levies from both countries not “sustainable.”

Among individual companies, Boeing rose 6 per cent as it reported a smaller-than-expected loss while confirming 2025 targets to raise commercial plane production.

Tesla shot up 5.4 per cent despite reporting weaker-than-expected earnings as chief executive officer Elon Musk announced he would

shift his attention back

to the electric carmaker, reducing his time spent on Mr Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Other large tech equities also pushed higher. Amazon rose 4.3 per cent, Facebook parent Meta won 4 per cent and Microsoft climbed 2.1 per cent. AFP