Stocks rose on Friday as another round of trade talks between the U.S. and China wrapped up with investors increasingly more hopeful a deal will be struck.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 180 points as Intel outperformed. The 30-stock index also broke above 26,000 for the first time since early November and posted its ninth consecutive weekly gain, its longest streak since May 1995. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9 percent as shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all closed higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also notched its ninth straight weekly gain, its longest streak since May 2009.
Stocks have been off to a roaring start to the year. The major indexes are all up at least 11 percent in 2019 after the Federal Reserve indicated it will be patient in raising rates. Hopes the U.S. and China end their trade skirmish has also boosted equities. The gains also follow a massive drop in equities to end 2018.
"It's pretty extraordinary the amount of gain that we've had," said Thomas Thornton, founder and president of Hedge Fund Telemetry. However, “Everything has gone up so dramatically that when the pullback comes, it will probably be widespread," he said.
President Donald Trump met with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday. Liu delivered a letter to Trump saying Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes the two countries can redouble efforts to strike a trade deal. The major indexes fell from their session highs on those comments.
Trump's meeting with Liu on Friday comes after a U.S. delegation met with Xi last week. Sources told CNBC that Trump and Xi are also discussing a summit at Mar-a-Lago late in March.
"This is constructive not just for the market but also for the global economy," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. A deal "would help the Chinese economy stabilize. That obviously helps the global economy."