Rally fades, but stocks end higher

Stocks closed modestly higher Monday after shedding most of the gains from an early rally spurred by the decision of President Donald Trump’s administration to hold off on increasing tariffs on imported Chinese goods.

The S&P 500 index added 3.44 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,796.11. The benchmark index has finished higher the past four weeks in a row.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 60.14 points, or 0.2 percent, to 26,091.95. Earlier in the day, it was up more than 209 points.

The Nasdaq composite rose 26.92 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,554.46. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 1.26 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,588.81.

Investors welcomed the tariff move, which averted an escalation in the damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The fight is over U.S. complaints that Beijing steals technology or pressures companies to hand it over.

Traders have been growing increasingly optimistic over the past two weeks that the U.S. and China are moving closer to a resolution of their dispute.

“You can attribute much of today’s gains to trade,” said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA. “The closer we get to a deal getting done or some agreement being made, the smaller the gains are becoming.”

Technology companies and banks accounted for much of the market’s gains, outweighing losses in consumer-goods stocks and other sectors. Oil prices fell sharply after Trump said they were getting too high. On Friday, oil closed at the highest level since mid-November.

Progress in the U.S.-China trade talks also helped lift markets broadly in Europe and Asia, where China’s main index, the Shanghai Composite, jumped to an eight-month high.

China faced a Friday deadline when the U.S. would have increased punitive duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

Trump, who did not set a new deadline Monday, said there had been “productive talks” on some of the more difficult issues and added he’s willing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping if negotiations progress.

The trade war and its hefty tariffs have already raised costs for businesses and consumers. Any additional escalation could shake investor confidence as an economic slowdown looms over China and Europe.

“I feel like we’re in a position where the president is interested in making deals,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.

Beyond trade, investors had their eye on the latest corporate news and earnings reports.

General Electric rose 6.4 percent after the industrial giant announced plans to sell a biotech unit to Danaher for $21.4 billion. The sale is yet another step down in size for GE, which has been divesting businesses since getting hurt in the financial crisis a decade ago.

Shares in Spark Therapeutics more than doubled after pharmaceutical giant Roche offered to buy the gene-therapy company for about $4.8 billion. Roche is snapping up the company as its rivals also look to gene therapy as a way to build up their potential drug pipelines. The focus is treatment for rare diseases, which often involves very costly drugs.

Carter’s Inc. jumped 8.1 percent after the maker of children’s clothing reported strong profit growth in the fourth quarter and forecast further gains in 2019.

Western Digital led technology-sector stocks after the data storage company announced a new flash memory card capable of holding up to a terabyte of information. The stock climbed 3.8 percent.

U.S. crude lost 3.1 percent to settle at $55.48 a barrel in New York after Trump criticized rising oil prices in an early morning tweet.