Stocks Teeter on Trade Concerns
December 13,2018 12:24 PM EST
Stocks seesawed on Thursday as investors digested the recent developments surrounding the ongoing U.S.-China trade war in what has been a very volatile week for Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained positive 28.38 points to 24,555.65, as Caterpillar outperformed.
The S&P 500 fell 4.83 points to 2,646.24, teetering around correction territory.
The NASDAQ dropped 39.68 points to 7,058.63, as Facebook, Amazon and Netflix gave up their initial gains.
General Electric shares jumped more than 10% after J.P. Morgan analyst Stephen Tusa, a longtime bear on the company, upgraded GE.
Market participants are gradually becoming more optimistic about the prospect of the U.S. and China reaching a comprehensive trade agreement. It follows a flurry of news this week pointing to cooling tensions between the two global powers.
On Wednesday, media reports circulated that Chinese state-owned companies had at least 500,000 tons of U.S. soybeans. It was the first major U.S. soybean purchases in more than six months, and the clearest sign to date that China plans to step up efforts to support its slowing economy.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury were lower, raising yields to 2.91% from Wednesday''s 2.91%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions
Oil prices gained 75 cents to $51.90 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices dipped $2.60 to $1,247.40 U.S. an ounce.
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