Fresh records for both the S&P500 and Nasdaq to begin the new trading week, with sentiment buoyed by reports of further advanced on the COVID-19 vaccine development front - Dow up +378-points or +1.35% to 28,308.46, settling above >28,000 for the first time in six months and just 4.2% shy of its 12 February record closing high. Boeing Co (up +6.43%) provided the biggest positive contribution. The broader S&P500 gained +1.00% to a fresh record closing high (3,431.28) and first close above >3,400. Energy (up +2.75%) and Financials (+2.32%) led ten of the eleven primary sectors higher, with Health Care (down -0.54%) the only sector to settle in the red. Travel and Leisure stocks traded strongly amid the latest encouraging COVID-19 vaccine headlines, with United Airlines Holdings Inc up +9.93% American Airlines Group Inc +10.53% and Delta Air Lines Inc +9.28%, while cruise operator Carnival Corp rallied +10.17%. The technology-centric NASDAQ +0.62%, hitting both a record closing (11,379.72) and intra-day (11,462.05) high. Apple Inc rose +1.2% and touched a fresh record high (US$515.14). Elsewhere, Facebook Inc rose +1.64%, Amazon.com Inc +0.69% and Google parent Alphabet Inc +0.49%. Twitter Inc rose +3.13% (to US$40.49), logging its highest close since 7 October, 2019. In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, Blackstone Group Inc rose 0.62% after Takeda Pharmaceutical Co announced it would sell its consumer health care business for 242B yen (~US$2.3B) to the U.S. private equity giant. Separately, diversified industrial company NN Inc fell -7.74% after the company said it has agreed to sell its Life Sciences unit to affiliates of American Securities LLC in a deal worth US$825M.
