US: China trade deal lifts Wall Street to 3rd day of records

[NEW YORK] A Wall Street rally sparked by the new US-China trade deal lifted US stocks to their third straight record closes on Monday.

Investors were also cheered by upbeat economic data out of China.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.4 per cent at 28,235.89 while the broader S&P 500 added 0.7 per cent to close at 3,191.45.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose the furthest, closing up 0.9 per cent at 8,814.23.

All three indexes were at record levels, with the S&P and Nasdaq settling at all-time highs for the third day in a row.

US and Chinese officials on Friday announced a partial trade deal, with Washington canceling and reducing some tariffs in exchange for Chinese pledges to increase purchases of US exports and adopt trade reforms.

Chris Low of FTN Financial told AFP the markets' jubilance may not be entirely justified.

"The best you can say is that it eliminates some of the negative scenarios people were worried about," he said.

"I think the market is rallying simply because the worst case scenario of US-China trade plumeting is off the table."

Officials in Beijing released data showing China had had a better-than-expected pickup in the retail and industrial sectors in November, a spot of good news at the close of a difficult year for the world's second-largest economy.

Among individual companies, shares in Boeing sank 4.3 per cent following media reports the company could decide as soon as Monday to slow or suspend production of its formerly top-selling 737 MAX jets.

The timeline for getting the globally grounded planes back in the air following two deadly crashes is increasingly uncertain.

The company conceded last week it would not get regulators' green light before the end of 2019.

AFP