Stocks rose on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday, raising hope the two countries could make progress on the trade front.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 150.66 points, or 0.6% to close at 26,496.67. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% end the day at 2,938.13 while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6% to 7,950.78. At its session high, the Dow was up 257.30 points, or 0.98%.

In a tweet, Trump said: "Big day of negotiations with China. They want to make a deal, but do I? I meet with the Vice Premier tomorrow at The White House."

Tweet

"They're going to announce something. We just don't know what that something is," said Larry Benedict, CEO of The Opportunistic Trader. "We can probably break the upside of this range on this move, but I just don't know if we're going to get enough for an all-time high."

Trade bellwether Caterpillar was the best-performing stock in the Dow, rising 2.7%. Apple shares climbed 1.4%. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase advanced more than 1% each.

Trump's tweet was the latest headline after a slew of conflicting reports overnight sent investors for a wild ride.

The South China Morning Post reported Wednesday night the U.S. and China made no progress in deputy-level trade talks this week. That report knocked Dow futures down by more than 300 points.

"The ongoing back-and-forth continues to offer opportunities to fade over-reactions in the market," said Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. rates at BMO Capital Markets. "At some point, however, there will be some semblance of outcomes across these dimensions, though we fear the finales may underwhelm as they are wont to do."

The report added that higher-level talks with China's Vice Premier Liu He would now be only one day, with the China delegation planning to leave Washington on Thursday instead of Friday as scheduled. The issue of forced technology transfers, which China refused to put on the table, was the reason talks were at a standstill, SCMP reported.

Stock futures later recovered some of those losses after the White House told CNBC's Kayla Tausche that the SCMP report was inaccurate. "We are not aware of a change in the Vice Premier's travel plans at this time," a White House spokesperson told CNBC.

And a senior administration official told Tausche that Liu is still scheduled to depart Friday evening, and dinner is on for the delegation Thursday evening in DC.