US open: Stocks find a bid on trade talk hopes

Wall Street found a bid on the last trading day of the month after Bloomberg reported that top US and Chinese officials were talking about holding talks, to paraphrase one market watcher.

The release of a weaker-than-expected reading on a key gauge of inflation pressures was also boosting sentiment as traders eagerly awaited the latest quarterly results from US tech giant Apple which were set for release after the market close.

"Rumours that the US and China making efforts to kickstart trade talks has helped boost markets. Meanwhile European currency weakness is helping enhance gains seen off the back of a dovish BoJ announcement overnight," said Joshua Mahony at IG.

As of 1612 BST, the S&P 500 was tacking on 0.48% or 13.48 points to 2,816.07, alongside a rise of 0.51% or 38.92 points for the Nasdaq Composite to 7,667.69 and an advance of 113.93 points for the Dow Jones Industrials to 25,421.97.

Shortly after the opening bell, Bloomberg reported that US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and his Chinese counterpart Liu He were in contact on how to restart trade negotiations.

Significantly as well, 10-year US Treasury yields were two basis points lower at 2.96%, having early hit an intra-session low of 2.93%, after the Bank of Japan told markets overnight it intended to maintain then current short and long-term interest rates at their extremely low levels for an "extended period of time".

Lifting sentiment as well, before the opening bell the Commerce Department reported that the 'core' price deflator for US personal consumption expenditures, the central bank's preferred inflation gauge, was steady in June at up by 1.9% year-on-year (consensus: 2.0%).

It was also revealed that government statisticians had marked down their preliminary readings on headline and core PCE for May by a tenth of a percentage point, each.

The ISM's Chicago business barometre for July meanwhile printed ahead of forecasts, coming in at 65.5, which was better than June's reading of 64.1 and expectations for a fall of 61.8.

Against that backdrop, all eyes on the last trading of the month was on Apple, with its shares trading 0.37% higher ahead of its second quarter results, which were due out after the closing bell.

Consensus expectations were for the company to post quarterly sales and earnings per share of $52.3bn and $2.16, respectively, on the back of iPhone unit sales of 42m at an average selling price of $701.

Elsewhere in the tech space, stock of KLA Tencor shot higher after the chip equipment maker posted fiscal fourth quarter net income of $2.22 per share on sales of $1.07bn, beating analysts' predictions on both counts, alongside better-than-expected guidance for the following three months.

Shares of chip designer Qualcomm were also on the front foot after the company announced the start of a modified Dutch tender to buyback as much as $10bn-worth of its own stock.

Shares of fashion retailer Ralph Lauren were wanted too after it reported quarterly adjusted earnings per share of $1.54 and sales of $1.39bn in comparison to analysts' forecasts for earnings of $1.36.

Consumer products giant Procter&Gamble shares were also trading higher, despite the company having posted slight worse than expected quarterly sales and providing weak revenue guidance for the next fiscal year.

In notable broker action, analysts at Jefferies marked-up their target price for Chipotle from $400 per share to $550.