Dow Jones up on U.S.-China trade talks, Tesla surges

U.S. stock indices were up amid renewed trade talks between the U.S. and China, while Tesla stock gained.

U.S. stocks trended up as encouraging news on trade trickled to the public. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 110 points or 0.26%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.41%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.38%.

Traders are keeping a close eye on trade talks between the U.S. and China, currently taking place in London. The biggest issues the teams tackled was U.S. access to Chinese rare earth minerals, as well as China’s access to advanced computer chips.

China suggested it was willing to ease restrictions on some companies that need rare earth minerals. However, the country is still not prepared to relinquish control completely. Despite this, Trump suggested that he was getting “good reports” from the talks, but also cautioned that “China is not easy” to negotiate with.

At the same time, the U.S. and India made substantial progress in their trade negotiations. According to sources from the Indian government, the two countries had a productive discussion, focusing on industrial and some agricultural goods.

Tesla recovers on robotaxi announcement

Stocks of Tesla were up 3.25% as the public feud between its CEO, Elon Musk, and U.S. President Donald Trump cooled off. Notably, on June 10, Trump made some conciliatory comments toward Musk and stated that he was open to talking to the tech CEO again.

At the same time, traders focused on new developments in its robotaxi business. Tesla received a license to operate autonomous vehicles in the state of Texas, with tests scheduled to begin on June 12 in Austin. Still, some analysts are skeptical about whether Musk can deliver on his promises of fully autonomous, non-manned vehicles.