Stocks rise as Treasury Secretary Bessent calls China talks successful ahead of the Trump-Xi summit

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday, September 20, 2026, joined by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and described the encounter as a very successful engagement. The talks were positioned as preparation for the summit between President Trump and President Xi, scheduled for September 23 to 25.

Markets read it as a de-escalation signal. U.S. index futures rose premarket on Monday, September 21, with Dow futures up roughly 0.8%, S&P 500 futures around 0.7% and Nasdaq futures near 1.0%. Those are futures rather than closing index levels, so they measure the immediate reaction to the news rather than where the session finished.

The substance of the talks has not been disclosed, which is the limiting factor on how much weight the move deserves. A cabinet-level characterisation of progress is not an agreement, and trade tension has been a persistent drag on sentiment precisely because the underlying disputes keep outlasting the meetings held about them.

The summit itself is the event to watch. Concrete commitments on tariffs, export controls or purchase volumes would give the premarket optimism something to stand on, while a summit that produces a communique and little else would likely hand back the gains. Positioning into September 23 will tell you how much the market actually believes.