(Adds oil, gold settlement prices)
* S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs
* Gold slides to 2-week low
* Euro pinned near 10-day lows on bleak outlook
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The dollar rose and global
equity markets rallied on Monday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500
hitting new highs, as revived hopes the United States and China
could soon sign an interim deal to end their prolonged trade war
lifted investor sentiment.
A burst of merger activity also lifted equities, with
trade-sensitive miners in Europe .SXPP and semiconductors on
Wall Street .SOX climbing on reports suggesting the world's
two largest economies were close to an initial trade deal.
European shares posted their best day in three weeks as
France's LVMH LVMH.PA agreed to buy luxury jeweler Tiffany &
Co TIF.N for $16.2 billion, and Swiss drugmaker Novartis
NOVN.S agreed to a $9.7 billion acquisition of The Medicines
Co MDCO.O .
In the United States, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp AMTD.O
agreed to an all-stock deal valued at $26 billion. The big driver of equity market gains were reports that an
elusive "phase one" U.S.-Sino trade agreement was near.
"The market's really assuming that we get an initial deal,"
Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel
in New York. "There's a lot of optimism, excessive optimism, but
there is still some upside assuming that it does occur."
Corporate management has put on hold capital expenditures on
property, plant and equipment because of uncertainty surrounding
the deal, which has dragged on the industrial side of the
economy, Ghriskey said.
"I don't see the market selling off when eventually we get a
deal, but there's limited upside at that point," he said.
U.S. national security adviser Robert O'Brien said on
Saturday that a trade pact was still possible by year's end,
while Chinese state-backed tabloid Global Times said Beijing and
Washington were "very close" to a "phase one" trade deal.
Adding to the positive mood was the weekend announcement
that China would seek to improve protections for intellectual
property rights, a sticking point in the talks. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.64% and its emerging markets index .MSCIEF added
0.51%. The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 1.0%.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Amazon.com
AMZN.O , along with microchip stocks, drove U.S. stocks higher.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX jumped 2.32% and
was on pace for its best day in just over three weeks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 141.09 points,
or 0.51%, to 28,016.71. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 18.52 points,
or 0.60%, to 3,128.81 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
100.81 points, or 1.18%, to 8,620.69. Earlier in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS bounced 0.7% and Japan's
Nikkei .N225 firmed 0.7%. Gold fell for a fourth straight session, sliding to a
two-week low, as investors' appetite for riskier assets
increased on the renewed optimism over a trade deal.
U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled down 0.5% at $1,456.90 an
ounce.
Oil prices rose. Brent crude futures LCOc1 gained 26 cents to settle at
$63.63 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1
rose 24 cents to settle at $58.01 a barrel.
Core euro zone bond yields rose slightly, as positive trade
developments trumped last week's weak euro zone data.
The German benchmark 10-year bond yield rose two basis
points in early London trading DE10YT=RR before easing to
trade almost flat on the day at -0.349%.
U.S. Treasury yields slid ahead of the Treasury Department's
scheduled sale of $113 billion in coupon-bearing supply this
week, and as investors focused on the likelihood that the United
States and China will reach a trade deal. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 3/32 in price to
push their yield down to 1.7620%.
The dollar index .DXY rose 0.05%, with the euro EUR=
down 0.12% to $1.1008. The Japanese yen JPY= weakened 0.29%
versus the greenback at 108.96 per dollar.
GRAPHIC-Global assets in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
GRAPHIC-World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
GRAPHIC-MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>