(Reuters) - U. S. stocks were higher on Thursday morning, led by financial and consumer discretionary companies,

(Reuters) - U. S. stocks were higher on Thursday morning, led by financial and consumer discretionary companies,<br />but gains were kept in check by cautious trading ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting and on uncertainty about quick U. S. fiscal stimulus.<br />President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, start their two-day meeting on Thursday<br />and top of the agenda is the possibility of Trump using U. S.-China trade ties to pressure Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea’s arms program.<br />ET (1505 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 36.66 points, or 0.18 percent, at 20,684.81, the S&P 500 was up 4.7 points, or 0.19 percent, at 2,357.65<br />and the Nasdaq Composite was up 9.42 points, or 0.16 percent, at 5,873.90.<br />Neil Massa said that The market can still go higher, but they need to make sure that everything the market has gone up on so far is coming to pass,<br />The S&P 500 index showed three 52-week highs and four lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 14 new highs and 50 new lows.<br />U. S. House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that the tax reform bill could take longer than the stalled healthcare bill.