US STOCKS-Wall St set to open flat, eyes on consumer data
November 26, 2019Wall Street Hits Record High on US-China Trade Deal Hopes
December 2, 2019The New York Stock Exchange kicked off Thanksgiving week on Monday, setting new records with renewed hope for talks between Washington and Beijing and a spate of large-scale M & A deals.
- Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gained 0.68% to finish at 28,066.47 points.
- The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, appreciated by 1.32% to finish at 8,632.49 points and the expanded index S & P 500 took 0.75% to 3,133.64 points.
This flight to unprecedented levels early in the session was quickly hailed by a tweet from US President Donald Trump who observed: “Another record in the stock market.The big Wall Street indexes had paused in their race to the heights last week while there were contradictory messages on the commercial front.But Monday, investors were reassured by encouraging comments from Chinese officials, ensuring that a partial agreement called “phase 1” could be reached by the end of the year.Chinese officials “also said that a” phase 2 “agreement was not imminent, but the bottom line is that we are getting closer to a partial agreement,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.
Positive signal from Beijing Another positive sign, Beijing pledged to increase the sanctions against Chinese companies that would be guilty of theft of intellectual property, a sensitive topic in the discussions between the two largest economies.Wall Street brokers were also encouraged on Monday by announcements of several buyback deals.This accumulation “reflects the idea that big companies have a positive appreciation of the economic situation, otherwise they would not expand,” Cardillo said.The largest deal was Charles Schwab (+ 2.32%), one of the pioneers of online brokerage, who put on the table $ 26 billion in shares to acquire his rival TD Ameritrade (+ 7.58%).
The world leader in luxury LVMH has, he, crunched the famous jeweler Tiffany (+ 6.18%) for $ 16.2 billion, a record acquisition for the group of Bernard Arnault.The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced Sunday the acquisition of the US group Medecines Co (+ 22.25%) for some $ 9.7 billion.The eBay online trading platform (+ 2.08%) will for its part sell the resale site of sports tickets and StubHub events and shows to Viagogo, for $ 4.05 billion in cash.On the bond market, the 10-year US debt rate was around 1.257 GMT to 1.757% against 1.771% at closing on Friday.