Trade optimism pushes Wall St. up to closing records

NEW YORK — All three major US stock indexes posted record closing highs on Monday, extending a recent run of gains on further hopes of a US-China trade deal.

It was the second consecutive session of closing records for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, and the first closing record for the Dow since July.

CATALYSTS

After US officials indicated on Friday that a trade deal with China could be signed this month, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Sunday that licenses for US companies to sell components to Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. would come “very shortly.”

In May, Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment provider, was put under a US blacklist citing national security concerns.

Sectors considered among the most sensitive to the trade war climbed. The S&P 500 technology index rose 0.6%, the Philadelphia Semiconductor index hit a record high and the S&P industrials index climbed 1.2%.

Optimism about progress with China after Friday’s market highs is “making it easier for investors to continue buying and climbing a wall of worry,” said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

Energy shares jumped along with gains in oil prices, with the S&P 500 energy index rising 3.2%, while the S&P 500 financial index climbed 0.9%, helped by shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. after it topped expectations for quarterly operating profit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114.75 points or 0.42% to 27,462.11; the S&P 500 gained 11.36 points or 0.37% to 3,078.27; and the Nasdaq Composite added 46.80 points or 0.56% to 8,433.20.

Last week’s interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, hopes of a trade deal and a better-thanfeared October jobs growth report have been the main catalysts of the recent rally.

EARNINGS

Limiting the day’s gains was a roughly 2.7% drop in shares of McDonald’s Corp., which dismissed Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook over a consensual relationship with an employee.

The third-quarter earnings season has been fairly upbeat, with the majority of S&P 500 companies beating profit expectations so far, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Under Armour, Inc. shares fell 18.9% on Monday as the sportswear maker lowered its full-year revenue forecast for a second time this year, a day after it confirmed a federal probe related to its accounting practices.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1.69 to 1; on Nasdaq, a 1.62-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 68 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 143 new highs and 38 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 7.53 billion shares, compared to the 6.55 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. —