Wall Street gains ground as China shores up its economy ahead of trade talks with the US

The S&P 500 index rose 0.4% in morning trading Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 242 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:59 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.

The Walt Disney Co. soared 9.9% after easily beating analysts’ profit targets, raising its profit forecast and adding more than a million streaming subscribers.

The encouraging update from the entertainment giant comes amid broader worries that tariffs will potentially sap consumer spending and hurt a wide range of companies, especially those focusing on discretionary items such as entertainment and travel.

An unpredictable trade policy by President Donald Trump has prompted many companies to cut or withdraw financial forecasts for the year. Super Micro Computer, which makes servers, fell 4.4% after trimming its revenue forecast for the year amid economic uncertainty.

Technology companies face an especially difficult situation amid the trade war between the U.S. and China. U.S. tariffs against China are now at 145% and China tariffs on the U.S. are at 125%.

Tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have a chance at easing, though. Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland. At the same time, China has plans to cut interest rates and take other measures to help it absorb the economic impact from tariffs.

Wall Street is also looking ahead to the latest update on interest rates and policy from the Federal Reserve. The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady today. Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have signaled that they want to see how tariffs impact consumer prices and the economy.

Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.29% from 4.30% late Tuesday.

Markets in Europe mostly lost ground, while markets in Asia rose.

AP business writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.