Stocks rose broadly on Wall Street in afternoon trading Wednesday as investors welcomed China’s move to exempt some U.S. products from a recent round of tariffs.
Technology, health care and communication services stocks powered much of the gains for the benchmark S&P 500 index, which has been essentially flat for much of the week. Investors also continued to favor smaller-company stocks.
Traders snapped up technology stocks, which had fallen earlier in the week. The sector is particularly sensitive to the fallout from the trade war between Washington and Beijing because many big tech companies, such as Apple, manufacture products in China.