US open: Stocks tick higher amid renewed hopes of a truce between Beijing and Washington

Wall Street trading started on a positive note on Wednesday as hopes that China and the US would be able to reach a truce on trade at this week's G20 meeting were renewed.

At 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones was up 0.60% at 24,897.97, while the S&P 500 had gained 0.25% to 2,688.76 and the Nasdaq was trading 0.44% firmer at 7,113.69.

US stocks were on-track for three consecutive days of gains at the bell on Wednesday ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell later in the day.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow, who revealed on Tuesday that US officials were having "a lot of communication" with the Chinese government at all levels ahead of the G20 meeting in Argentina this week, said Donald Trump had told advisers that "in his view, there is a good possibility that a deal can be made and that he is open to that".

However, China would need to do more for an agreement to be reached, with certain conditions needing to be met, Kudlow said.

Analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: "This would suggest that for all the optimism and Trump’s comments earlier this week that the best we can hope for is that any additional tariffs are delayed, and the current ones are left at their current levels."

"Nonetheless equity markets have chosen to focus on the positive with Asia markets also pushing higher ahead of the key meeting on Saturday with Presidents Trump and Xi."

The USD was 0.24% softer against the GBP at 0.7827, while Brent was 0.86% lower at $59.69 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was 0.60% weaker at $51.25 a barrel.

In corporate news, Tiffany's slumped 9.46% in early trade after the luxury jeweller's third-quarter sales missed analysts' expectations.

Consumer foods group JM Smucker slipped 3.83% at the bell after its quarterly profit and sales missed forecasts and the company cut its full-year outlook.

On the other hand, Burlington Stores climbed 5% as its third-quarter earnings and revenue topped analysts' forecasts, while Salesforce.com rallied 6.7% after posting better-than-expected third-quarter results late on Tuesday.

Boeing took off 2.7%, leading the Dow's gainers.

On the data front, America's shortfall on trade in goods with the rest of the world widened last month as export growth slipped.

The US deficit on its foreign trade in goods increased by 1.3% month-on-month in October to reach $77.2bn, according to the Department of Commerce.

Exports shrank by 0.5% versus the previous month to reach $140.5bn while imports were little changed, edging up by just $200m to $217.8bn.

Economists had pencilled-in a deficit of $77bn.

In other news from the Department of Commerce, America's economy slowed a tad more quickly than expected last quarter but in a potentially positive development, data on businesses' outlays on equipment was revised sharply higher.

America's gross domestic product expanded at a quarterly annualised pace of 3.5% over the three months to September, which was unchanged from the preliminary estimate, although a tenth of a percentage point lower than economists had forecast.

However, the underlying details were "favourable", said Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics, pointing to upwardly revised growth of 3.5% in business fixed investment.

Elsewhere, sales of new US homes plummeted 8.9% in October, as the number of newly built, unsold homes sitting on the market climbed to its highest level since 2009.

The Commerce Department said new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 last month, hitting a nearly three-year low and marking the fourth decline in the last five months.

Lastly, the Richmond Fed manufacturing index revealed the service sector "grew slightly in November". However, the survey's results were a bit weaker than expected. The index came in at 14, just shy of the 15 expected by economists and lower than the prior month at 15.

Market participants were also awaiting Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Economic Club of New York at 1800 GMT.

"Given signs of a global slowdown and extreme market volatility over the past few months, investors will be keen for a sense of the Fed’s hiking plans for next year," said London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler.