The benchmark US equity indices logged fresh record closing highs to open the holiday-shortened Christmas trading week - Dow up +96-points or +0.34% to 28,551.53. Boeing Co was the leading index performer, jumping +2.9% and adding ~65-points to the Dow after the company ousted Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dennis Muilenburg with immediate effect amid the 737 Max crisis. Chairman David Calhoun will become CEO on 13 January, with the transition period allowing him to exit his non-Boeing commitments. The broader S&P500 eked out +0.09% rise to 3,224.01. The NASDAQ rose +0.23% to 8,945.44 to book its ninth consecutive record closing high - the technology-centric index’s longest such streak since 1998. Apple Inc rose 1.63% after Wedbush’s Dan Ives - the tech giant’s biggest bull on Wall Street - raised his price target to US$350 per share, ~23% higher than the stock’s closing price of US$284. Apple Inc has more than doubled off its lows of the year. Tesla Inc rose +3.36% In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, Apache Corp rallied +17.8% after the oil-and-gas explorer announced an agreement with French peer Total SA (+0.58%) to acquire a 50% working interest in Block 58 of the offshore Guyana-Suriname basin. Separately, online-gambling company DraftKings Inc. said it will become a public company via an acquisition of Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp (up +6.1%) and SBTech, a gaming technologies firm. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2020, when the combined company will trade under a new symbol, listed on the Nasdaq.
