STORY: Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Friday, with the Dow adding more than a third of a percent, the S&P 500 gaining about half a percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbing almost three-quarters of a percent.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Friday, after which Trump said the two leaders made progress on a TikTok deal.
That cheered investors, said Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief investment officer at Laffer Tengler Investments.
“I think what we're seeing today in the Nasdaq is it's accelerated as the day's gone on. And I think that's largely because of Trump's comments around TikTok that we're close to a deal. I don't know why the market reacts to this stuff the way it does so quickly and then will reverse itself tomorrow – I think it's the hedge funds, the algorithms. But as an investor, I've continued to remain long – technology stocks, I think that is the place to be for some time, and so we're enjoying this run since the summer in tech names.”
Among those tech names, Apple rose more than 3%, as did Palantir Techologies, while Oracle climbed 4%.
Other notable stock moves included FedEx, which popped over 2% after the delivery company reported quarterly profit and revenue above analyst estimates.
And shares of Paramount Skydance jumped nearly 6% after a CNBC report laid out more details about the media company's potential bid for Warner Bros Discovery, which rose nearly 3.5%.
