NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks edged higher early Thursday as US-China trade talks resumed in Beijing, even while the estimate for fourth-quarter US growth was downgraded.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent to 25,682.58.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent to 2,812.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also advanced 0.3 percent to 7,663.98.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin arrived in Beijing for two days of trade talks with China’s top economic official Liu He as the two sides try to hash out a long-term agreement.
Officials however, downplayed expectations for a rapid conclusion of the months’ long dispute. Beijing said Thursday US and Chinese negotiators still face a “large amount of work.”
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department sharply downgraded the growth estimate for the final quarter of 2018 to 2.2 percent from the prior estimate of 2.6 percent, amid lower consumer spending and business investment.
US stocks have been choppy over the last week as investors grapple with a drop in US Treasury bond yields, which has traditionally been seen as indicator of medium- and long-term economic weakness.
Among individual companies, Facebook fell 0.8 percent after US Department of Housing and Urban Development accused the company of discrimination in housing-related ads by restricting who can view the posts.
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