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* U.S.-China 'very close' to trade deal - report
* Trade-sensitive chip stocks surge
* Tiffany jumps after $16.2 bln buyout offer from LVMH
* TD Ameritrade rises on $26 bln deal with Charles Schwab
* Indexes rise: Dow 0.52%, S&P 0.63%, Nasdaq 1.19%
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Arjun Panchadar
Nov 25 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes hit
fresh record highs on Monday as a report that the United States
and China were nearing a trade truce sparked a rally in Apple
and semiconductor stocks, with sentiment also buoyed by a raft
of blockbuster deals.
Gains in trade-sensitive chip stocks, including Applied
Materials Inc AMAT.O and Lam Research Corp LRCX.O , helped
lift the Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX 2.28% after a
Chinese state-backed tabloid said Beijing and Washington were
"very close" to an initial pact. That added to optimism from comments over the weekend by a
top U.S. official that an agreement was still possible by the
end of the year, dispelling fears that the negotiations could
spill over into 2020. Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.3%, the top boost to the S&P and
Nasdaq and the second-biggest support to the blue-chip Dow Jones
Industrial Average.
"The mood is pretty positive at this point," said Scott
Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg,
Florida.
Gains on Monday were broad-based, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq
.IXIC firming over 1.1% and nine of the 11 major S&P 500
sectors higher. The technology sector .SPLRCT gained the most
on the benchmark index, rising 1.18%.
"You got mergers today, which are typically positive for the
market, and I think you still have some optimism that there's
going to be a trade deal," Brown said.
Tiffany & Co TIF.N jumped 6.3% and was the biggest gainer
on the S&P 500 as the luxury jeweler agreed to a sweetened $16.2
billion deal with France's LVMH LVMH.PA . U.S. discount brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp AMTD.O
was up 6.9% after larger rival Charles Schwab Corp SCHW.N said
it would buy the company in an all-stock deal valued at about
$26 billion. Schwab rose 1.6%.
EBay Inc EBAY.O gained 1.5% after the e-commerce major
said it would sell ticketing unit StubHub to ticket reseller
Viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash. Trade deal hopes and robust third-quarter corporate earnings
have helped Wall Street's main indexes scale record levels this
month.
At 1:20 p.m. ET the Dow .DJI was up 144.63 points, or
0.52%, at 28,020.25, while the S&P 500 .SPX was up 19.72
points, or 0.63%, at 3,130.01. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was
up 101.81 points at 8,621.69.
Among other stocks, Nvidia Corp NVDA.O rose 4.4% and was
the top gainer on the chip index as Morgan Stanley upgraded its
shares to "overweight" from "equal weight". However, Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N slipped 1.4% as the
ride-hailing company was stripped of its license to carry paying
passengers in London for the second time in just over two years.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.16-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 3.26-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 35 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 109 new highs and 46 new lows.