A fresh round of record closing highs for the benchmark US equity indices amid optimism around the progress of US-China trade talks and some merger and acquisition (M&A) activity - Dow up +191-points or +0.68% at 28,066.47. The broader S&P500 gained +0.75% to 3,133.64. Information Technology (up +1.43%) led ten of the eleven primary sectors higher, with Utilities (down -0.37%) the only laggard. The technology-centric NASDAQ rose +1.31% to 8,632.49. Nvidia Corp rose 4.9% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the semiconductor firm to overweight. Uber Technologies Inc fell -1.5% after the global ride-hailing company was stripped of its London license. All three indices also set fresh record intra-day highs. In M&A news, Charles Schwab Corp (up +2.3%) confirmed it will acquire rival TD Ameritrade Holding Corp (+7.58%) for US$26B in an all-stock deal that will, upon completion, create a new company with more than US$5 trillion in assets. Ebay Inc. closed up 2.1% after confirming an earlier report in The Wall Street Journal in announcing a deal to sell its ticketing business StubHub to Viagogo for US$4B. Ebay bought StubHub for US$310M in 2007.
