Stocks climb as investors seek peace in trade dispute

Stocks climbed again Friday as President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping prepared to discuss trade, a meeting investors hope will start to resolve the two nations’ trade dispute.

The U.S. market jumped this week after falling to a six-month low the week before. The rally helped the market finish with a modest gain in November, but the Standard & Poor’s 500 index is still 5.8% away from the alltime high it set in late September. Among other issues, that drop reflects investors’ pessimism that the United States and China will resolve their differences without causing damage to the global economy.

“The outlook for the global economy in 2019 does depend on some peace in the trade dispute between the U.S. and China,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist for JPMorgan Funds. He said global stocks would probably jump if the two leaders announce the framework of a deal and fall if they don’t. In any case, he thinks the two sides will reach an agreement by early 2019.

“Nobody’s got much to gain from fighting a trade war,” he said, “but we both are threatened with recession.”

Technology and healthcare companies made the largest gains Friday while energy companies slipped as U.S. crude oil fell again, briefly trading under $50 a barrel. The price of crude oil dropped 22% in November, its biggest monthly decline in a decade, hurt by concerns that supplies are too ample as global economic growth slows.

Hotel operator Marriott slid 5.6% to $115.03 after it announced a data breach that could affect 500 million guests.

The S&P 500 index rose 22.41 points, or 0.8%, to 2,760.17. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 199.62 points, or 0.8%, to 25,538.46. The Nasdaq composite rose 57.45 points, or 0.8%, to 7,330.54. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks advanced 7.88 points, or 0.5%, to 1,533.27.

Among technology companies, Intel advanced 3.4% to $49.31 and Nvidia climbed 3.9% to $163.43.

Microsoft rose 0.6% to $110.89 and Apple fell 0.5% to $178.58, which meant Microsoft surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. Microsoft’s current market value is $851.2 billion to Apple’s $847.4 billion. Amazon isn’t far behind, at $826.4 billion.

Microsoft was the world’s most valuable publicly traded company during the dot-com boom, but hadn’t held the title since 2000.

Biotech drugmaker AbbVie rose 4.8% to $94.27 after it said Pfizer agreed to wait until November 2023 before it starts selling a generic version of AbbVie’s inflammatory disease drug Humira in the United States. The agreement is part of a licensing deal between the companies. Humira is the biggestselling drug in the world by revenue, and it’s responsible for about two-thirds of AbbVie’s total sales.

Other biotech drugmakers also climbed. Gilead Sciences rallied 3.2% to $71.94. Amgen rose 2.9% to $208.25.

Bond prices rose further. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.99%, its lowest since mid-September, from 3.03%.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 1% to $50.93 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.3% to $58.71 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline fell 0.9% to $1.44 a gallon. Heating oil was little changed at $1.85 a gallon. Natural gas fell 0.7% to $4.61 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The dollar rose to 113.61 yen from 113.43 yen. The euro fell to $1.1309 from $1.1389.

Gold fell 0.4% to $1,226 an ounce. Silver fell 1.3% to $14.22 an ounce. Copper held steady at $2.79 a pound.