US equity markets advanced and remained on track to book a second consecutive month of strong gains, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt playing down the July tariff deal deadlines that have been looming over markets - Dow climbed +404-points or +0.94% to 43,386.84, its highest close since 28 February but still -3.6% below its record closing high set on 4 December 2024 of 4,5014.04. Caterpillar Inc (up +2.77%) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (+2.58% and touching a record intra-day high along with JPMorgan Chase & Co (+1.65%)) gained over >2.5%. Nvidia Corp added +0.46% and touched a fresh record high that briefly lifted the chipmaker’s market capitalisation above >US$3.8 trillion, having reclaimed its title of the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation from Microsoft Corp (+1.05% and hitting a fresh record high) on Wednesday (25 June).
