Stocks – Wall Street Flat as High-Level U.S.-China Trade Talks Begin 

Investing.com – Wall Street was flat on Thursday as high-level trade talks kicked off in Washington, as the U.S. and China attempt to work towards a deal.

The rose 17 points or 0.1% by 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT), while the S&P 500 was up 2 points or 0.1% and the gained 10 points or 0.1%.

Uncertainty remains as investors received mixed signals about what, if any, progress has been made between the two largest economies in the world.

Sentiment dampened earlier after the South China Morning Post reported that no progress has been made in deputy-level trade talks that occurred before high-level ones on Thursday, which it said will last only one day instead of the two days originally scheduled.

They then ticked up again as President Donald Trump chimed in on Twitter.

Bloomberg had previously reported that the U.S. was considering a currency pact with China. Meanwhile China has also urged the U.S. to stop putting pressure on Chinese companies, following a White House decision to blacklist eight further tech companies in China this week.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:) fell 4.4%, as its third-quarter revenue came in below forecasts. Pacific Gas & Electric tumbled 30.8% after a judge ruled that a rival bankruptcy plan from Elliott Management and other bondholders should be considered instead of its chapter 11 plan.

Elsewhere, Costco (NASDAQ:) rose 0.3% after reporting a rise in its comparable-store sales in September, while Apple (NASDAQ:) inched up 0.4% on an analyst upgrade.

In commodities, the , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1% to 98.725 and rose 0.5% to $1,511.75 a troy ounce. jumped 1.5% to $53.44 a barrel.

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