U.S. Stock Indexes Extend Winning Streak to 3rd Day

Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street for the third straight day Thursday, led by solid gains in technology companies and banks.

The latest gains extend the market’s turnaround from the start of the week, when stocks nosedived as the trade conflict between the U.S. and China escalated, stoking investors’ fears about the fallout for the global economy and corporate profits.

Traders have since been encouraged by signals that Washington and Beijing are still planning to continue negotiations. And they’ve found relief in reports indicating that the U.S. is backing away from raising tariffs on auto imports from Europe and is making progress on lifting steel tariffs in North America.

The S&P 500 index rose 25.36 points, or 0.9%, to 2,876.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 214.66 points, or 0.8%, to 25,862.68. The index was briefly up 309 points.

The Nasdaq composite gained 75.90 points, or 1%, to 7,898.05. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks picked up 8.97 points, or 0.6%, to 1,557.24.

Major stock indexes in Europe finished higher.

The S&P 500 is now up 2.3% from its close on Monday, when the benchmark index slumped after China issued retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, ratcheting up tensions between the two largest economies in the world.

The market has still not recovered all its losses since early last week, when President Trump turned up the heat in the trade war by threatening to hike tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10% to 25%. The S&P 500 is still down about 1.9% from its close on May 6.

The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq are still on track to end the week with losses, even after the three-day winning streak.

Cisco rose the most in the S&P 500, vaulting 6.7% after it beat Wall Street’s fiscal third quarter earnings forecasts.

Not all technology sector stocks had a good day. Chipmakers slumped a day after the Trump administration labeled Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei a security risk and imposed export curbs on U.S. technology sales to the company. The move hurts U.S. chipmakers, which sell products to Huawei, which is the biggest global maker of switching equipment for phone companies.

The S&P Semiconductor and Semiconductor Equipment index closed 1.6% lower. Several chipmakers also fell. Qorvo tumbled 7.1%, Micron Technology lost 2.9% and Qualcomm dropped 4%.

Banks and other financial services companies got a boost from higher bond yields, which allow them to charge higher interest rates on loans.

JPMorgan Chase rose 1.3%, American Express added 1.9% and Bank of America gained 1.1%

The yield on the 10 year Treasury rose to 2.39% from 2.38% late Wednesday.

The higher yields followed a Commerce Department report showing that U.S. home construction rose faster than expected by economists in April.

The solid report follows a series of weak economic reports on Wednesday that shoved bond yields sharply lower and weighed down the entire financial sector.

Energy futures finished higher. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.4% to settle at $62.87 per barrel.