New York (AFP)

Wall Street finished higher on Monday, buoyed by a lull on the trade front between Beijing and Washington and hopes for a resumption of dialogue between the world's two leading economies.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones took 1.05% to 25,898.83 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, gained 1.32% to 7.853,74 points and the expanded index S & P 500 rose by 1.10% to 2,878.38 points.

Friday, the New York quotation had plunged into the red, undermined by a sudden escalation of tensions between Washington and Beijing, against a backdrop of tariffs. The Dow Jones fell 2.37% and the Nasdaq tumbled 3.00%.

Monday, the two countries seemed to have taken the road of dialogue, Donald Trump showing confidence in a possible agreement with Beijing.

The US president assured that China had wished to resume dialogue with the United States. "China called last night (...) She said + let's get back to the bargaining table +, so we'll come back," he said, without specifying who "called" who.

A spokesman for Chinese diplomacy said he was unaware of such a call and no date has been set for re-contact.

Earlier in the day, China's chief negotiator said he wanted to "calmly resolve the problem through consultations and cooperation."

These developments benefited the equity market as investors regained their appetite for risk.

The semiconductor sector, struggling on Friday, is off the front Monday: Intel rose 1.3% and Micron Technology 1.1%.

Apple, which manufactures and sells a large portion of its products in China, also benefited from Monday's optimism as its share rose 1.9%.

- Celgene close to a merger with Bristol-Myers Squibb

"Given the magnitude of Friday's losses, today's rebound is rather light," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.

"There is still a lot of uncertainty, but unfortunately, the market is paralyzed by the rhetoric of Donald Trump, who changes his mind from one day to the next." So long as there is no concrete evidence a truce (note: commercial) or any agreement, the market will remain wobbly, "continued the expert.

On the bond market, the 10-year US debt rate rose slightly to 1.54% at around 20:40 GMT.

Among the other values ​​of the day, Celgene's shares rose by 3.2%. The group sold the rights of the treatment of psoriasis, Otezla, to the biotech Amgen (+ 3.2%), which will enable it to seal its merger with Bristol-Myers Squibb (+ 3.3%).

Johnson & Johnson gained 0.80% in electronic trading after closing after climbing 3.5% in trading. A court on Monday condemned the group to pay $ 572 million to Oklahoma for its responsibility in the opiate crisis, well below the $ 17 billion claimed by the complaining state.

© 2019 AFP