Facebook, Amazon buoy Wall Street as trade concerns cool

By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - Facebook, Amazon and industrial stocks helped Wall Street extend its recovery on Thursday as fears over a trade war between the United States and China eased.

Technology stocks, which have taken a beating in the past three weeks, were higher.

Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Netflix - collectively known as the "FANG" group - were up between 0.8 percent and 2.6 percent.

Shares of Boeing, Caterpillar - hit the most on Wednesday after China retaliated with $50 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods such as soybeans, autos, chemicals and some types of aircraft - also rose more than 1 percent.

At 9:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.57 percent at 24,403.74. The S&P 500 rose 0.37 percent to 2,654.55 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.55 percent to 7,080.71.

The Dow bounced back from a 500 point drop on Wednesday after President Donald Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was involved in a "negotiation" with China rather than a trade war.

"The bounce on Wednesday was really quite impressive, especially as there was not much of a catalyst for the turnaround given that neither the U.S. or China is backing down on tariffs and negotiations were always going to take place in the background," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda said in a note.

Investors also took comfort from the fact that the effective date of China's move depended on when the U.S. action took effect, providing room for maneuver.

Economic data on Thursday showed that the U.S. trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February, but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply.

While exports to China were unchanged in February, imports from the country declined 14.7 percent.

Facebook shares were up about 3 percent after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company had not seen "any meaningful impact" on usage or ad sales since the data privacy scandal.

Wells Fargo rose 1 percent and Citigroup gained 1.5 percent following upgrades by UBS.

Advanced Micro Devices jumped 3.4 percent after Stifel upgraded to "buy", while Micron Technology fell 3.7 percent after UBS started with a "sell" rating.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 2.25-to-1 ratio and for a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)