U.S. stocks bounced back this week after a nasty October. And while experts have cited a number of factors behind the resurgence in equities—including stocks being oversold and a strong economic backdrop—it would appear that one key narrative has helped to drive stocks toward a four-day rally: developments around the U.S.-China trade skirmish.

Read:Here’s the key question for U.S. investors about the trade skirmish with China

As the chart above highlights, upbeat tariff talks between Washington and Beijing have had a singular effect on stocks, highlighted most recently by a recent uptrend that has added more than 900 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.27% since Monday’s ugly start to the week.

Also read: Trade-war tracker: Here are the new levies, imposed and threatened

Thus far, four notable developments have injected a fresh dollop of optimism on Wall Street:

Check out this tweet from CNBC’s Eamon Javers:

Other market participants were throwing more cold water on recent reports, questioning the likelihood the Trump administration was drafting an accord with China. Investors also have harbored doubts about the timing of upbeat reports on imminent trade pacts ahead of important midterm election on Nov. 6. Those elections are likely to shift the balance of power on Congress.

That is reflected in the following tweet from Joe Brusuelas, chief economist with RSM:

Friday afternoon, Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser for President Donald Trump, refuted the Bloomberg report, sending shares to fresh lows.

Earlier Friday, the Dow slipped into negative territory, giving up early gains. The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.69% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -1.17% also pulled back, with a decline in shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.80% adding to the retreat.

Check out: 5 things about a U.S.-China trade war that might surprise investors

Chris Senyek, chief investment strategist at Wolfe Research, earlier this week highlighted the notion, echoed by many previously, that trade issues remain at the forefront of investors’ minds:

Trade has been a key driver of the global growth outlook in recent years. More specifically, competitive devaluations created stiff headwinds for trade and the world economy throughout 2015. We believe that the end of this destructive process was a key catalyst behind strong synchronized global growth in 2016-17. More recently, it appears that President Trump’s trade actions created a major drag on trade in the first half of this year, before activity levels started to recover as U.S. was making progress in renegotiating deals with Canada, Mexico, Europe, and South Korea.

He offers this chart to illustrate:

Trade issues have been at the center of Wall Street’s concerns because they have the potential to ripple into every other issue that has been besieging investors, if it escalates. That includes the growth outlook for U.S. corporations, an economic slowdown in China, the pace of rate hikes and the health of the U.S. economy and stock market, market participants have said.