Wall Street stocks posted solid gains for a second straight session on Wednesday as markets continued to cheer the Trump administration's more conciliatory tone on trade negotiations with China.

Equities spent the entire day in positive territory as market watchers also pointed to Trump's statements that he had no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The Dow Jones finished up 1.1 percent at 39,606.

The S&P 500 rose 1.7 percent to 5,375, while the Nasdaq jumped 2.5 percent to 16,708.

A day after the International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth outlook the Federal Reserve's Beige Book of economic conditions said the economic outlook had "worsened considerably" in several US districts due to uncertainty about tariffs.

But markets are rallying on "any headline that's less negative on trade," said Art Hogan of B Riley Wealth Management.

"We've moved into a slightly more positive position but we still don't know what the endgame will be on trade," Hogan said.

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters Washington is "not yet" speaking with Beijing on tariffs, calling today's prohibitively high levies from both countries not "sustainable."

Among individual companies, Boeing rose 6.0 percent as it reported a smaller-than-expected loss while confirming 2025 targets to raise commercial plane production.

Tesla shot up 5.4 percent despite reporting weaker-than-expected earnings as CEO Elon Musk announced he would shift his attention back to the electric carmaker, reducing his time spent on Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Other large tech equities also pushed higher. Amazon rose 4.3 percent, Facebook parent Meta won 4.0 percent and Microsoft climbed 2.1 percent. (AFP)