U.S. Stocks End at Records
December 16 2019 - 4:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Avantika Chilkoti and Alexander Osipovich
U.S. share benchmarks joined European stocks in hitting new
highs Monday as optimism built that some of the market's biggest
risks are easing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 100 points, or 0.4%, to
28235, while the S&P 500 added 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite rose
0.9%. All three indexes hit intraday records.
Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 1.4% to reach a new
high, its first in four years, and the Shanghai Composite Index
closed up 0.6%.
Fresh data showed that Chinese economic activity, including
factory production and consumer spending, improved in November. The
better-than-expected results may help alleviate investors' concerns
about growth in the world's second-largest economy.
Markets were buoyed last week as some of the major risks facing
global economic growth -- the U.S.-China trade spat, changes to the
North American Free Trade Agreement and uncertainty around Brexit
-- appeared to ease. On Friday, the U.S. reached a truce with China
after securing a pledge from Beijing to boost purchases of
agricultural products, bringing a temporary halt to tensions that
have rocked markets for most of this year.
"Unless we get any bad data I think the market is going to
continue to ride because this was a big, big hurdle cleared for
markets with this 'phase one' deal," said Esty Dwek, head of global
market strategy at Natixis Investment Managers, adding that
earnings expectations for 2020 are now turning sunnier, too.
The S&P and Nasdaq hit their latest closing records Friday,
while the Dow's peak came in late November.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.891%, from
1.820% on Friday, as investors sold U.S. government debt in favor
of riskier assets. Bond yields rise as prices fall.
U.S. oil futures climbed 14 cents a barrel, or 0.2%, to $60.21,
building on gains from the trade deal last week. Gold futures fell
60 cents per troy ounce, or less than 0.1%, to $1475.00.
In corporate news, shares of Boeing declined 4.3%. The aerospace
company is considering either suspending or cutting back production
of the 737 MAX, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deepening
production cuts would inflate Boeing's costs and trigger charges
against its financial results as fixed expenses would be spread
among fewer planes.
International Flavors & Fragrances fell 10% after DuPont de
Nemours reached a deal to combine its nutrition business with IFF
in a deal that will give DuPont a $7.3 billion cash payment and
about 55.4% of the new company. Shares in DuPont gained 0.2%.
In the U.K., the FTSE 100 index rose 2.3%, its largest one-day
percentage increase since December. The gauge is extending gains
from last week following Prime Minister Boris Johnson's resounding
win in the general election. The result paves the way for the U.K.
to leave the European Union next month, clearing some of the
political uncertainty that has hung over the country's economy
since the 2016 Brexit referendum.
"It takes the risk of a no-deal Brexit immediately off the table
and it gives you some certainty, so that's better than where we
were," said Thomas Pugh, U.K. economist at Capital Economics.
Write to Avantika Chilkoti at Avantika.Chilkoti@wsj.com and
Alexander Osipovich at alexander.osipovich@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 16, 2019 16:23 ET (21:23 GMT)
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