Benchmark US equity indices climbed to their highest levels in five weeks as optimism continued to build around fresh fiscal stimulus measures - Dow settled +122-points or +0.43% higher. International Business Machines Corp (IBM) gained +5.98% to lead the Dow higher after the company announced its plan to spin off the Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services business into a new publicly-traded company by the end of 2021. IBM has trimmed its legacy businesses over the years to focus on cloud, aiming to make up for slowing software sales and seasonal demand for its mainframe servers. McDonald’s Corp fell 0.3% despite the fast-food giant reporting third-quarter same-store sales that exceeded forecasts and said it was raising its dividend by 3%. The broader S&P500 +0.80%, with Energy (up +3.78%) the clear outperformer and leading all eleven primary sectors higher. The technology-centric Nasdaq rose +0.50%. In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, Eaton Vance Corp surged +48.14% after Morgan Stanley (+0.6%) agreed to buy the asset manager for ~US$7B in a cash-and-stock deal.
