U.S. stocks largely closed in positive territory Wednesday, though off session highs, after the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S.-China trade talks have stalled out on disagreements over China making firm commitments on agricultural purchases and U.S. reluctance to roll back already implemented tariffs in the hopes of maintaining an enforcement mechanism to hold China to the terms of a potential deal.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 92 points, or 0.3% to close at about 27,784, a new record, and the S&P 500 index added about two points to end the day at 3,094, also a record close. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite index shed about 4 points, or 0.1% to close near 8,482.

The apparent gap between U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators has delayed the completion of a phase-one trade deal that was announced on Oct. 11 by President Trump and Vice-Premier Liu He, though doubts to whether an actual deal will be signed grew after President Trump said during a speech Tuesday that he was willing to raise tariffs further if China doesn't agree to a deal that works for the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before Congress' Joint Economic Committee Wednesday, where he signaled that interest rates would be on hold unless there was a material deterioration in the economy.

In company news, shares of Nike Inc. rose 2% after it announced it would stop selling apparel directly on Amazon.com Inc.

Source : MarketWatch