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Apple and Microsoft push Wall Street higher as trade worries abate

01 October 2019 02:41 (UTC +04:00)

U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, helped by gains in Apple, Microsoft and Merck & Co, as investors set aside worries about the U.S.-China trade war, APA reports citing Reuters.

Shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) rose 2.4% after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told a German daily that sales of the company’s newest iPhones were off to a strong start, while JP Morgan raised its forecast for shipment volumes. Apple is struggling to reverse shrinking iPhone sales amid tepid global demand for smartphones.

Also helped by a 0.9% rise in Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), the S&P 500 technology index .SPLRCT added 1.0%, leading other sectors.

Sentiment on Wall Street got an additional boost after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro dismissed reports that the Trump administration was considering delisting Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges as “fake news.”

Concerns related to those reports had sent the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC to a more than three-week low on Friday.

“This idea of using different types of levers that impact trade negotiations is something that we will get accustomed to,” said Phil Blancato, chief executive officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) and Baidu Inc (BIDU.O) rose 0.8% and 1.5%, respectively.

The next round of high-stakes trade talks between the world’s two largest economies is scheduled for October.

Wall Street’s main indexes are on course to end September with the weakest quarterly performance so far this year, rattled by a host of factors including an escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, the inversion of an important part of the U.S. yield curve and political turmoil in Washington.