Stocks were holding onto their best one-day gains since mid-August Thursday after China signaled it doesn't want trade tensions to worsen.
A comment from China's Foreign Ministry raised hopes that the two sides hope to resume face-to-face talks in September.
The S&P 500 was up 1.4%, with the Dow Jones industrials up 1.36% and the Nasdaq Composite rising 1.4%.
The NASDAQ 100 index, dominated by big tech stocks, was up 1.6%. Shares of chip stocks were the leaders.
Twenty-six of the 30 Dow stocks were higher, led by Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). The Dow's 360-point gain was potentially its biggest one-day jump since Aug. 13.
All but four Nasdaq 100 stocks were higher, led by American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU).
