Stocks celebrate trade progress with triple point jump
U.S. stocks saw a broad rally on Monday, the first trading day of the final month of the year, on optimism that the U.S.-China trade war may be coming to an end.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average registered a 287.97 point jump or 1 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also turned in gains of over 1 percent.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 44296.51 | +426.16 | +0.97% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 5969.34 | +20.63 | +0.35% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 19003.651134 | +31.23 | +0.16% |
Investors were laser focused on word from the G20 weekend meeting that President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day ‘trade truce’ in the dispute and to intensify trade negotiations. Trump put on hold his plans to increase tariffs on some $200 billion of Chinese goods. Xi vowed that China would substantially increase its purchases of American energy, industrial and agricultural products. Top White House economic Advisor Larry Kudlow told FOX Business that the early benefits of China's committments should begin "immediately."
Large cap tech resumed its leadership during the session with Amazon, Microsoft and Dow member Apple, three of the most valuable U.S. companies, fighting for the lead with the maker of iPhones holding on to its most valuable U.S. company title.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 197.12 | -1.26 | -0.64% |
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 229.87 | +1.35 | +0.59% |
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 417.00 | +4.13 | +1.00% |
| BA | THE BOEING CO. | 149.27 | +5.87 | +4.09% |
| CAT | CATERPILLAR INC. | 397.47 | +7.75 | +1.99% |
Trade-sensitive companies, including Boeing and Caterpillar, rose as well. Investors did sell the more defensive stocks such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KO | THE COCA-COLA CO. | 63.91 | +0.15 | +0.24% |
| PG | PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. | 176.25 | +3.48 | +2.02% |
The U.S.-China trade war developments energized global stocks, with a key Chinese stock index closing up 2.5 percent and Japanese stocks up 1.3 percent. In Europe, Germany’s DAX paced indexes with a 2.5 percent gain.
The optimism also boosted the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil over 4 percent to the $53 per barrel level.