Stocks Opened Higher as Trade War Fears Eased

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, led by gains in technology stocks, following softer rhetoric over the U.S.-China trade dispute from the Trump administration over the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately gained 148.05 points, or 0.62%, to 24,080.81. The S&P 500 rose 15.96 points, or 0.61% to 2,620.43. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 75.31 points, or 1.09% to 6,990.43.

Oil prices ticked up Monday, even as U.S.-China trade tensions lingered and rig activity in the U.S. pointed to production growth. Brent crude was up 0.5% at $67.43 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 0.3% at $62.25 a barrel.

Viacom Inc (VIAB) has asked CBS Corp (CBS) to sweeten its merger bid by about $2.8 billion or almost a quarter more than CBS’s offer, indicating the wide gap in the U.S. media firms’ price expectations.

AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) reported positive results in a late-stage trial of a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. AbbVie said the phase 3 trial of upadacitinib met its primary endpoints.

Adidas expects to close down stores in the coming years as part of a shift towards selling more goods online, its chief executive told a newspaper.