The market showed what it’s really concerned about on Thursday by shrugging off any fears of contagion from Turkey and rallying hard on news of “lower-level” trade talks between the U.S. and China later this month. A Chinese delegation will meet with Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass and other representatives on August 21 and 22. The two sides are wisely lowering expectations that this meeting could be some type of breakthrough and ease trade tensions…but the market didn’t care. They’re going to talk!!! That’s all the mattered today. Being most susceptible to all these trade shenanigans, the Dow had the most energetic response with a surge of 1.58% (or nearly 400 points) to 25,558.7. The S&P climbed 0.79% to 2840.7. Both of these indices made up for yesterday’s sharp losses and will go into tomorrow’s session with gains for the week. The NASDAQ, though, had quite a bit more ground to recover than its counterparts after yesterday’s dip of more than 1.2%. The index improved 0.42% today to 7806.5, but it's still in a bit of a hole for the week. “Markets rallied today after news broke last night that China and the US have scheduled trade talks for August 21-22nd,” said Jeremy in Counterstrike. “While nothing has actually happened, the news of potential talks is a positive and hopes for a trade deal became more real. Stocks loved the news.” Another big story on Thursday was Wal-Mart (WMT). The retailing giant jumped 9.3% after a quarter that included better-than-expected earnings and revenue, along with a raised fiscal year guidance. But perhaps most important in this new Amazon world, U.S. sales growth was the best in more than 10 years and digital sales soared. Today's Portfolio Highlights: Momentum Trader: Hey there pilgrim...if you’re looking for some western wear, then look no further than Boot Barn Holdings (BOOT). Dave thinks this retailer is also a good place to find some profit. The editor likes the “smooth bottom-left to top-right movement” of its chart and its positive surprise of 25% in its most recent quarterly announcement. The stock has surged higher since bottoming out in late 2017, and Dave is thinking this momentum will continue. He added BOOT on Thursday with a 12.5% allocation. Learn more about this new addition in the full write-up. Insider Trader: "There's this common thread on Stocktwits and Twitter right now that there's going to be this sudden, massive collapse of the markets. "I urge investors to focus on the positive side of investing, not the negative. There are always going to be pullbacks and sell offs. Those are normal. We're in a secular bull market so the pullbacks are buying opportunities. "Additionally, have a diverse portfolio. In 2000, many investors got caught overweight in the NASDAQ names. The sell off was particularly painful. A diverse portfolio isn't going to avoid all of the pain, as there's nowhere to hide in a massive sell off, but it can help provide some cushion." --Tracey Ryniec Large-Cap Trader: "This is a ‘three steps forward and two steps back’ kind of market. However, that is better than the reverse. It is August. Many trading desks are half-staffed at the moment. I wouldn’t read too much into any broad stock movement. "After Labor Day, we have a solid space of time between then and the midterm U.S. Federal elections to cover. That could be positive ground for the U.S. large cap stock market indexes. The strong earnings season may finally get stock prices to move higher, definitively. "I would like to see (as many of you must) a trade deal with China wrapped up before that election. So far, however, there have been no trade deals with anyone. "Crossing your fingers isn’t much of a top-down strategy. But that is what we are left with." -- John Blank Until Tomorrow, Jim Giaquinto Recommendations from Zacks' Private Portfolios: Believe it or not, this article is not available on the Zacks.com website. The commentary is a partial overview of the daily activity from Zacks' private recommendation services. If you would like to follow our Buy and Sell signals in real time, we've made a special arrangement for readers of this website. Starting today you can see all the recommendations from all of Zacks' portfolios absolutely free for 7 days. Our services cover everything from value stocks and momentum trades to insider buying and positive earnings surprises (which we've predicted with an astonishing 80%+ accuracy). Click here to "test drive" Zacks Ultimate for FREE >> Zacks Investment Research