S&P 500 rises as tech climbs, investors await progress on trade deals: Live updates

Stocks popped Thursday thanks to strong gains in megacap tech names, as investors continued to look for signs of progress on the global trade front.

The S&P 500 added 1.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged and was last trading 0.5% higher, weighed by an 6% drop in IBM.

Shares of Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Tesla and Microsoft each were trading about 2% higher. Tech has been rocked recently as the White House’s increasingly confrontational trade stance, particularly against China, dents sentiment on the sector.

China said overnight that there were no trade talks taking place with the U.S., with Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong adding that “all sayings” regarding progress on bilateral talks should be dismissed. He also called for the cancelation of “unilateral” tariffs.

Those remarks came after President Donald Trump said he is willing to take a less confrontational approach toward trade talks with Beijing. Further, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the U.S. has the “opportunity for a big deal” on trade. Chinese imports are subject to a U.S. tariff of 145%.

With this lack of trade negotiation progress in mind, Ross Mayfield, investment analyst at Baird, was cautious about Thursday’s move upward.

“I don’t trust the move,” he told CNBC in an interview. “China overnight was pretty explicit that there were no negotiations ongoing. Perhaps the market is still feeling some confidence that at least the administration is talking about wanting a deal, as opposed to digging in and raising tariffs to insane rates. There’s potentially some leftover optimism from yesterday.”

The S&P 500 has slipped 4% since April 2, the day Trump announced his new tariff policy on U.S. imports. Since then, the Dow has declined 5.7%, while the Nasdaq has lost 3.6%.