US stocks today: US stocks end higher on tech rally; investors eye Beijing talks

U.S. stocks advanced on Thursday, ​lifted by a rally in tech stocks as investors absorbed generally solid economic data and watched for developments from Beijing, where U.S. President Trump was engaged in a high-stakes meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

All three major U.S. stock indexes gained ground, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq setting ‌their latest in ⁠a series ⁠of record closing highs.

“Everybody’s asking the same question: how much longer does this (rally) go on? There’s a lot of people that are loving this rally, but they’re ​also antsy at the same time,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. “You have to be in it to ​win it, not just sitting on the sidelines watching the market go to all-time highs.”

Trump attended the summit along with an entourage that included Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Jensen Huang, chief executive of artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia.

Nvidia’s shares closed sharply higher after the ​U.S. cleared the sales of the company’s H200 chips to Chinese firms.

The summit ⁠between Trump and ‌Xi is intended to hash out a broad array of issues, including trade, U.S. arms sales ​to Taiwan and the ​re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway, through which Asia gets much of its crude, has ⁠been effectively shut down during the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.”Obviously, these are very ​high stakes meetings,” said Michael Monaghan, portfolio manager at Founder ETFs in Dallas. “It is certainly ​great power competition, but I think that these two economies will be better off working together.””I’m happy to see the two leaders collaborating, a tone of collaboration, and hopefully we’ll see that follow through in long-term agreements,” Monaghan added.

On the economic front, retail sales were in line with expectations, but propped up by rising gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war. Gasoline was largely responsible for the biggest jump in import prices since October 2022.

A series of inflation reports this week showed the risk of spiking energy ‌costs metastasizing to other goods and services, extinguishing hopes for near-term rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid called inflation the most “pressing risk” to the U.S. economy, which he characterizes as “resilient.” ​While Schmid is not ​a voter on monetary policy this ⁠year, his remarks reflect the view of the Fed’s hawkish wing.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 57.39 points, or 0.77%, to end at 7,501.64 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 232.88 points, or 0.88%, to 26,635.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 374.79 ​points, or 0.75%, to 50,067.99.

Cisco surged to an all-time high after the computer networking giant announced nearly 4,000 job cuts as part of a restructuring scheme, and raised its annual revenue forecast.

U.S.-listed shares of tech infrastructure firm Nebius Group rose after Northland Capital raised its target price by 15.3% to $248 per share.

China has agreed to buy 200 jets from Boeing, President Trump told Fox News. Even so, the planemaker’s stock closed lower.

Cerebras jumped nearly 90% above its offer price in the chipmaker’s U.S. market debut.