02:19 PM EDT, 09/15/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were higher after midday Monday as President Donald Trump sounded upbeat about trade negotiations with China, while markets awaited the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision due later in the week.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.8% at 22,317.2 intraday, following a record-high close in the previous session. The S&P 500 was up 0.4% at 6,613.5, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 45,881.2. Among sectors, communication services paced the gainers, while health care saw the biggest drop.

The US-China trade meeting in Spain has gone "very well," Trump said in a Monday social media post, adding that he will speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Friday.

"A deal was also reached on a 'certain' company that young people in our country very much wanted to save," Trump wrote, potentially referring to short-video app TikTok.

US and Chinese officials have reached a framework to switch TikTok to US-controlled ownership that will be confirmed during the upcoming Trump-Xi call, Reuters reported.

The latest US-China meeting marks the fourth round of negotiations in as many months to address strained trade relationships between the two global economic heavyweights, as well as TikTok's divestiture deadline, according to the report.

US Treasury yields were lower intraday, with the 10-year rate decreasing 2.6 basis points to 4.03% and the two-year rate losing 2.1 basis points to 3.54%.

Markets widely expect the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee to lower its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points following its two-day meeting Wednesday, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

The FOMC is expected to cut interest rates consecutively until January, with this week's post-meeting policy guidance likely to signal an easing bias amid worries about the labor market, Morgan Stanley said in a note e-mailed Monday.

Fed officials are not committed to a single course of action, and will likely continue to calibrate between their dual mandate of price stability and a robust labor market, Wells Fargo Investment Institute said Monday.

"On the other hand, it seems that financial markets remain ahead of the Fed, as the market is pricing the federal funds rate in the range of (2.75% to 3%) by the end of 2026," the firm said. "In our view, this represents perhaps a bit too many rate cuts priced in given that the consensus on the macroeconomic landscape assumes that the US only goes through a soft patch."

In company news, Tesla (TSLA) shares were up 5.5%, among the top gainers on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, after a regulatory filing showed that Chief Executive Elon Musk bought roughly $1 billion worth of the electric vehicle manufacturer's shares in several transactions.

Tesla's board recently proposed a new compensation package potentially worth around $1 trillion for Musk.

Western Digital ( WDC ) was among the top S&P 500 gainers intraday Monday, up 4.4%, as Benchmark raised its price target on the data storage products maker's stock to $115 from $85.

Corteva ( CTVA ) shares were down 4.7%, the worst performer on the S&P 500. The company is exploring a split of its seed and pesticide businesses into two separate companies, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed sources.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 1.2% at $63.43 a barrel intraday Monday.

Gold was up 0.9% at $3,719.80 per troy ounce, while silver gained 0.5% to $43.05 per ounce.