US markets recovered from earlier session declines to close solidly higher - Dow up +553-points or +2.21% (to 25,548.27), closing above >25,000 for the first time since March. Goldman Sachs Group Inc gained +6.97% after the investment bank’s President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) John Waldren said the company remains on track to achieve its medium and long term growth targets despite the economic shocks of the coronavirus pandemic. J.P.Morgan Chase & Co rose +5.8%. After the closing bell the head of the company’s corporate and investment banking division said second quarter revenues are on track to be more than >50% higher than the same period last year. AT&T Inc gained +3.9% after the launch of the HBO Max streaming service. Boeing Co gained +4.7% in the extended session (after gaining +3.3% in regular trading) after the jet maker announced plans to layoff 6,770 U.S. workers, with the first employees affected being notified this week. Boeing said it is seeing "green shoots" after the devastation wrought by the virtual halt on air travel, but the industry will take "some years to return to what it was just two months ago." In a separate press release, the company announced it was resuming production of its 737 Max aircraft in Renton, Washington. The broader S&P500 gained +1.48% (to 3,036.13) to settle above >3,000 for the first time since March and back above its 200-day moving average. Financials (up +4.34%) and Industrials (+3.34%) led all eleven primary sectors higher. The Financials sector is up ~10% over the past two days, its biggest two day increase since 8-9 April. General Electric Co climbed +7.2% after the industrial conglomerate announced a deal to sell its nearly 130-year old GE Lighting business to privately held home control and automation company Savant Systems Inc. The Wall Street Journal reported that the deal was valued at ~US$250M. MGM Resorts International rose +2.61% after the company said it plans to reopen its Las Vegas properties on June 4, including the Bellagio, MGM Grand Las Vegas, New York-New York and The Signature casino resorts. FedEx Corp (up +4.5%) is close to taking a stake in German parcel delivery firm Hermes, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper NASDAQ +0.77%, with the technology-centric index staging its biggest intraday percentage comeback since 28 February, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Micron Technology Inc gained +7.97% after the chipmaker lifted its revenue forecast for the third quarter (to a range of US$5.2B to US$5.4B from US$4.6B to US$5.2B)
