Stocks rose broadly in early trading on Wall Street Thursday, pushing major indexes toward another set of records, after China said it agreed with the U.S. on a gradual pullback on tariffs if talks progress.
The S&P 500 is heading for its second record-setting day this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq are on pace for their third day of record highs.
Technology companies led the market. Qualcomm rose sharply after reporting solid earnings. The sector is prone to swings in trade relations as many of those companies rely on China for sales and supply chains.
Banks also rose after bond yields made a big jump. Higher yields allow banks to charge more lucrative interest rates on mortgages and other loans. Citigroup rose 1.7% and JPMorgan Chase rose 1.3%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.89% from 1.81% late Wednesday. The big move signals confidence from investors as they shift away from safe-play holdings and take on more risk.
Real estate companies and utilities, also considered safer investments, lagged the market.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index rose 0.6% as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 202 points, or 0.7%, to 27,691. The Nasdaq rose 0.7%.
The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks was outpacing the broader market in the early going with a gain of 1.1%.
Markets in Europe and Asia also rose.
TRADING ON TRADE: The encouraging development in U.S.-China negotiations is giving the market direction after a day of listless trading as investors absorbed the latest round of corporate earnings. Both nations have agreed to a truce, but the terms are still vague and they have yet to sign a deal.
The U.S.-China trade war has been a top concern for investors since early 2018. Wall Street has been worried that tariffs will crimp corporate and economic growth.
BROKEN RECORDS: The S&P 500 has been on a steady rally for the past month, following the announcement of an initial U.S.-China trade deal in early October. Last week it notched three record-setting days as investors grew more encouraged about prospects for economic growth because of solid economic and earnings reports.
The rally also lifted the Dow and Nasdaq over the last two weeks to multiple records.
EARNINGS SCORECARD: It's a busy day for corporate earnings as the latest round of results nears the finish line. More than 85% of companies within the S&P 500 have reported so far.
Chipmaker Qualcomm, which reported results late Wednesday, rose 7.2% after beating analyst's profit forecasts. Several other winners included drug distributor Cardinal Health, which rose 5.9% after reporting surprisingly good results. Ralph Lauren surged 14.2% following its solid results.
Several companies that focus on travel were punished by investors after reporting weak results. TripAdvisor plunged 22.4% and Expedia plummeted 24.1%.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Belarusian authorities on Saturday freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova from prison, a human rights advocate confirmed to The Associated Press.
Their release comes as authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko seeks to improve relations with Washington. In exchange for sanctions relief, Lukashenko pardoned 123 prisoners, the Belta state news agency reported. The U.S. earlier on Saturday announced lifting sanctions on the country’s potash sector.
A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced Western isolation and sanctions for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been repeatedly sanctioned by Western countries both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Belarus has released hundreds of prisoners since July 2024.
John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, announced the lifting of sanctions on potash after meeting Lukashenko in Minsk on Friday and Saturday.
Speaking with journalists, Coale described the two-day talks as “very productive,” Belarus’ state news agency Belta reported Saturday. He said that normalizing relations between Washington and Minsk was “our goal.”
“We’re lifting sanctions, releasing prisoners. We’re constantly talking to each other,” he said, according to Belta. He also said that the relationship between the countries was moving from “baby steps to more confident steps” as they increased dialogue.
Later Saturday, Bialiatski and Kolesnikova were released from prison, according to Pavel Sapelka, human rights advocate with the Viasna rights group.
Human rights advocate Bialiatski won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, along with the prominent Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties.
Bialiatski, awarded the prize while in jail awaiting trial, was later convicted of smuggling as well as financing actions that violate public order — charges widely denounced as politically motivated — and sentenced to 10 years in 2023.
Authorities said Bialiatski, who founded Viasna, Belarus’ oldest and most prominent human rights group, was seen as especially dangerous because of what the authorities alleged were his “extremist tendencies.” The 63-year-old has been imprisoned at a penal colony in Gorki in a facility that is notorious for beatings and hard labor. Bialiatski’s wife said his health was deteriorating and he has multiple chronic illnesses.
A U.N. panel of human rights experts has called on Belarus to release him.
Kolesnikova was a key figure in the mass protests that rocked Belarus in 2020, and is a close ally of an opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Kolesnikova, known for her close-cropped hair and trademark gesture of forming a heart with her hands, became an even greater symbol of resistance when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her in September 2020. Driven to the Ukrainian border, she briefly broke away from security forces at the frontier, tore up her passport and walked back into Belarus.
The 43-year-old professional flautist was convicted in 2021 on charges including conspiracy to seize power and sentenced to 11 years in prison. She fell seriously ill behind bars and underwent surgery.
The last time U.S. officials met with Lukashenko in September 2025, Washington announced easing some of the sanctions against Belarus while Mink released more than 50 political prisoners into Lithuania. With that September release, the number of prisoners freed by Belarus since July 2024 exceeded 430, in what was widely seen as an effort at a rapprochement with the West.
“The freeing of political prisoners means that Lukashenko understands the pain of Western sanctions and is seeking to ease them,” Tsikhanouskaya told the AP on Saturday.
She added: “But let’s not be naive: Lukashenko hasn’t changed his policies, his crackdown continues and he keeps on supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. That’s why we need to be extremely cautious with any talk of sanctions relief, so that we don't reinforce Russia's war machine and encourage continued repressions.”
Tsikhnouskaya also described European Union sanctions against Belarusian potash fertilizers as far more painful for Minsk that those imposed by the U.S, saying that while easing U.S. sanctions could lead to the release of political prisoners, European sanctions should push for long-term, systemic changes in Belarus and the end of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Belarus, which previously accounted for about 20% of global potash fertilizer exports, has faced sharply reduced shipments since Western sanctions targeted state producer Belaruskali and cut off transit through Lithuania’s Klaipeda port, the country’s main export route.
“Sanctions by the U.S., EU and their allies have significantly weakened Belarus’s potash industry, depriving the country of a key source of foreign exchange earnings and access to key markets,” Anastasiya Luzgina, an analyst at the Belarusian Economic Research Center BEROC, told AP.
“Minsk hopes that lifting U.S. sanctions on potash will pave the way for easing more painful European sanctions; at the very least, U.S. actions will allow discussions to begin,” she said.
The latest round of U.S.-Belarus talks also touched on Venezuela, as well as Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Belta reported.
Coale told reporters that Lukashenko had given “good advice” on how to address the Ukraine war, saying that Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin were “longtime friends” with “the necessary level of relationship to discuss such issues.”
"Naturally, President Putin may accept some advice and not others,” Coale said.
In this photo released by Belarusian presidential press service, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, and U.S. Presidential envoy John Coale shake hands during their meeting in Minsk, Belarus, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)
