US stocks gain for 3rd straight day; Dow up 1.1%

Wall Street stocks advanced for the third straight session on Thursday, bouncing after selling off for most of October, and helped by new optimism over US-China trade relations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.1% at 25 380.74.

The broad-based S&P 500 also advanced 1.1% to 2 740.37, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.8% to 7 434.06.

US stocks were in the green most of the day, picking up momentum after US President Donald Trump reported on Twitter after a discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping that talks were "moving along nicely" over a trade fight that has upset investors.

While investors are likely to take Trump's comment with a grain of salt so soon to next week's congressional elections, the statement was still encouraging, said Maris Ogg, president at Tower Bridge Advisors.

"We've learned in the last year that tariffs are probably not a strategy but a tactic," Ogg said. "So the market gets a little encouraged when it seems there might be some light at the end of the tunnel."

Ogg also cited "momentum carryover" after positive sessions the prior two days helped the market to correct an "oversold" situation.

Some companies that had faltered in October scored strong gains, including Amazon, up 4.2%, Caterpillar, up 2.8% and Hasbro, up 6.4%.

DowDuPont shot up 8.1% after reporting third-quarter earnings of 74 cents per share, three cents above analyst expectations.

But Google parent Alphabet fell 0.6% as thousands employees from around the world staged the "Google Walkout For Real Change" in protest of the company's handling of sexual misconduct claims.