Trump: "U.S.-China trade talks went very well"… S&P500, Nasdaq hit record highs [New York Market Briefing]

Alphabet surpasses $3 trillion market cap

Major U.S. stock indices all rose. Investor sentiment appeared to improve after President Donald Trump described the U.S.-China trade talks as "going very well."

On the 15th (local time) in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 49.23 points (0.11%) at 45,883.45. The S&P 500 rose 30.99 points (0.47%) to 6,615.28, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 207.65 points (0.94%) to 22,348.75.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs on the day.

Optimistic outlooks on the trade talks have been interpreted as improving investor sentiment. President Trump said the U.S.-China trade talks "went very well" and added that they reached an agreement regarding the 'specific' company (TikTok) that "our young people really wanted to save." He also said he plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the talks on the 19th.

Li Chenggang, China's Ministry of Commerce representative and deputy head for international trade negotiations, also said at a press conference that they had "frank, in-depth, and constructive communications" with the U.S. on economic and trade issues including TikTok, and that "they reached a basic agreement through cooperation."

Looking at individual stocks, Tesla rose 3.56%. The stock jumped 3.56% on news that CEO Elon Musk bought $1 billion (about 1.4 trillion won) worth of company shares intraday on the 12th.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, rose 4.5% that day. It became the fourth company, after Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia, to surpass a $3 trillion market capitalization. Google’s stock has risen about 20% since a U.S. court earlier this month issued a less severe-than-expected sanction decision in an antitrust lawsuit.

Expectations of a rate cut also continued. According to CME's FedWatch, the rate futures market reflected a 96% probability that the Federal Reserve would cut the policy rate by 0.25 percentage points at the FOMC meeting on the 17th, and a 4% probability of a 0.50 percentage point cut.

Jin Young-gi, Hankyung.com reporter young71@hankyung.com