New York (AFP)

Wall Street moved up sharply Thursday, driven by the hope of a resumption of trade dialogue between China and the United States.

Its leading index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.18% to 26,342.72 points at 13:40 GMT.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, climbed by 1.40% to 7,967.12 points.

The broad S & P 500 index was up 1.14% at 2,920.78 points.

Reassured by the relative calm between the two world's largest economies, the New York Stock Exchange had already finished rising on Wednesday, the Dow Jones had gained 1.00% and the Nasdaq, with strong technological color, rose 0.38%.

On Thursday, the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce suggested that Beijing may not respond to the latest US customs surcharges on its products, arguing that the trade war is threatening global growth and that a resumption of negotiations is still possible. No date for new talks has been advanced.

Last week, Beijing announced tariff retaliation, after Donald Trump's decision to tax part of the $ 300 billion of additional Chinese exports on September 1 and the rest on December 15.

The US president immediately responded by raising the level of the additional customs duties initially planned.

According to FTN Financial's Christopher Lowe, the visibly more moderate tone of China "is good news, but it is not yet a reason to believe that an agreement is near."

In the bond market, the 10-year interest rate on US debt rose after a heavy drop the day before. It stood at 1.50%, but remained below the two-year yield on US Treasury bonds (1.52%), which is often considered by economists as a sign of a recession.

Investors were also responding to revised US economic growth figures in the second quarter after the second estimate released Thursday by the Commerce Department.

The expansion of the world's largest economy for the April-June period was revised down slightly to 2% from April to June, according to analysts' expectations, instead of 2.1%. However, this level of growth remains relatively strong.

"The main lesson is that consumer spending has been revised up to 4.7% from 4.3% previously announced, which represents the largest increase since the fourth quarter of 2014," said Patrick O Hare Briefing.

Consumption is the main driver of US growth.

© 2019 AFP