U.S. stocks rally after China data, JPMorgan earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher in the morning session on Wednesday, after strong Chinese trade data and JPMorgan Chase's better-than-expected quarterly profit.

By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 154.88 points, or 0.87 percent, to 17,876.13. The S&P 500 rose 17.20 points, or 0.83 percent, to 2,078.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 64.35 points, or 1.32 percent, to 4,936.44.

China's exports in yuan-denominated terms surged 18.7 percent year on year in March, the first increase since December, compared with a slump of 20.6 percent in February and a 6.6-percent fall in January, showed figures from the General Administration of Customs released on Wednesday.

Imports dipped 1.7 percent, an improvement from February's 8-percent drop.

China's stocks staged a rally on Wednesday as the trade data suggested stabilization in China's economy.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase reported Wednesday first-quarter 2016 net income of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, or 1.35 dollars per share, on revenue of 24.1 billion dollars. Its shares surged 4.54 percent at 61.97 dollars per share around midday trading.

On the economic front, the advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March were 446.9 billion dollars, a decrease of 0.3 percent from the previous month, and 1.7 percent above March 2015, the U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.1 percent in March, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday. On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index moved down 0.1 percent for the 12 months ended in March. Endit