Wall Street rises on Trump’s trade comments, Nike hits record high

U.S. stock indexes rose on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said a trade deal with China could happen sooner than expected, while Nike’s shares hit a record high on upbeat quarterly results.

Wall Street had a sluggish start after Democratic lawmakers moved to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump, adding fresh uncertainty for markets already roiled by the U.S.-China trade tussle and worries over slowing global economic growth.

Trump’s comments were in contrast to his harsh rhetoric on Tuesday on the trade dispute, which rattled global stock markets on Wednesday.

“This is just part of his rhetoric, it changes one day to the next. We just have to wait and see if this will really happen,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

shares jumped 5.1% to a record high, and were among the top boosts to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 after the company’s first-quarter results beat market expectations.
Footwear retailer Foot Locker Inc gained 3.3%.

Shares in Philip Morris surged 6.2% after the tobacco company called off merger talks with Altria Group Inc and said it would instead focus on the U.S. launch of its tobacco-heating product, iQOS.

Boeing Co rose 1.7%, after the aircraft maker said it created a new permanent safety committee in the aftermath of two fatal 737 MAX crashes.

At 11:36 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 132.49 points, or 0.49%, at 26,940.26, while the S&P 500 was up 5.87 points, or 0.20%, at 2,972.47. The Nasdaq Composite was up 14.06 points, or 0.18%, at 8,007.69.

Marathon Petroleum Corp rose 6.3% and was among the top gainers on the S&P 500 after activist investor Elliott Management renewed its demand for splitting into three companies.

Chipmaker Broadcom Inc dropped 3.3% and was the biggest loser on the S&P 500 after it priced an upsized offering of convertible preferred stock.