Wall Street jumps as China pauses trade retaliation

US stocks leapt higher on Thursday, with investors taking heart after Chinese authorities suggested they may break the cycle of tit-for-tat retaliations in the trade war with the United States.

The gains put Wall Street in the green for a second straight day. Traders have brushed aside earlier recession fears sparked by falling bond yields.

About a half-hour into the trading day, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader S&P 500 were both up less than 1.1 per cent at 26,310.12 and 2,918.77 respectively.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.4 per cent, rising to 7,963.53.

All three indexes are still on track to finish in the red for the month, marking their worst performance since May.

In Beijing, a spokesman for China's Commerce Ministry told reporters the next agenda in the trade war should be cancelling President Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs, not retaliation.

"The escalation of the trade war is not beneficial to China and it is not beneficial to the United States," said spokesman Gao Feng.

Shares of Apple and Boeing, both exposed to the Chinese market, both rose about one per cent on the news.

Electronics retailer Best Buy, however, plunged 8.9 per cent despite posting better-than-expected earnings.

The company warned that looming US tariffs on Chinese goods could hit sales.

Elsewhere, the US Commerce Department revised GDP growth figures downward slightly for the second quarter, pointing to lower oil exports and weaker government spending than previously estimated.