Wall Street stocks lifted by US-China talks, Walmart

Wall Street stocks rose early on Thursday following news US and Chinese officials will hold trade talks, and as Walmart surged on strong earnings.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.3% at 25 491.45.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7% to 2 837.66, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.6% to 7 821.31.

Chinese officials announced they would send a senior negotiator to the United States in late August to resume trade talks, the first public meeting on the dispute in weeks as the trade conflict intensifies.

At the invitation of the United States, a delegation led by Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, the deputy representative on international trade negotiations, will meet with a team led by senior US Treasury official David Malpass, the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement.

The announcement revived hopes the world's two biggest economies could avert a full-scale trade war. The two countries are expected to launch a new round of tit-for-tat tariffs on $16bn worth of goods from each country on August 23. And the US is poised to hit another $200bn in Chinese goods.

Meanwhile, Dow member Walmart shot up more than nine percent after reporting a 4.5% jump in comparable sales at US stores in the second quarter, its strongest performance in more than a decade.

Other companies to report results were mixed, with Cisco Systems gaining 4.1% but J.C. Penney plummeting 26.1%.