US Market hits new records on trade deal hopes

The US stock market posted record closing highs on Thursday, 26 December 2019, as investor sentiment got a boot on the prospects of completing a phase-one U.S.-China trade deal after encouraging comments from President Donald Trump and Chinese officials. At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 105.94 points or 0.37% to 28,621.39, the S&P 500 index gained 16.53 points, or 0.51%, to 3,239.91, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 69.51 points, or 0.78%, to a new record at 9,022.39.

Rising optimism around a "Phase 1" trade deal announced earlier this month between the United States and China has helped put investors in a buying mood. On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said officials from Beijing and Washington were in close communication about detailed arrangements for the deal's signing and other follow-up work. Those comments follow remarks from President Trump, who on Christmas Eve said that the deal is done, it's just being translated right now. Trump also said that he and China's leader, Xi Jinping, would hold a signing ceremony for the partial trade resolution in January. We'll be having a quicker signing because we want to get it done.

 

Meanwhile, some investors also drew optimism from a report from Mastercard indicating that total U.S. retail sales for Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve rose 3.4% from a year earlier. Online shopping registered a record 14.6% of total sales, according to Mastercard Spending Pulse.

Amazon shares climbed 1.8% after the e-commerce company said the holiday shopping season had broken all prior records, rising 19% over the period.

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Weekly Jobless Claims Continue To Decline- US first-time claims for unemployment benefits showed a continued decrease in the week ended December 21st, the Labor Department revealed in a report on Thursday. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 222,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level of 235,000. Jobless claims fell for the second straight week after reaching their highest level since September of 2017 in the week ended December 7th.

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