A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the opening bell in New York on Thursday. Wall Street stocks rose early Thursday on positive sentiment about the U.S.-China summit and strong Cisco earnings that reinforced confidence in artificial intelligence growth. AFP-Yonhap
LONDON — European and U.S. stock markets climbed Thursday as a tech-fuelled rally rolled on even as the United States and China were locked in talks in Beijing, accompanied by key U.S. business leaders hoping for deals.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met for a closely watched summit that covered thorny issues including Taiwan, but yielded few concrete outcomes in its opening phase.
Trump and Xi are set to discuss extending a one-year tariff truce, which the two leaders reached during their last meeting in South Korea in October, though a deal is far from certain.
China's controls on rare earth and agriculture exports are also expected to be on the menu.
Wall Street's leading indices pushed higher, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite setting new all-time highs on AI bullishness.
"This positive bias is rooted in the positive disposition of many tech stocks," Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare wrote before the start of trading.
Cisco shares rose more than 15 percent, buoyed by stronger-than-expected quarterly results and forecasts for the current quarter.
Shares in the so-called magnificent seven tech stocks — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — climbed two percent Wednesday and rose another 0.7 percent as trading got underway on Thursday.
Accompanying Trump is a U.S. delegation including high-powered business leaders such as Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Apple's Tim Cook and Tesla's Elon Musk.
Source: Korea Times News
