US equity markets mostly advanced as investors welcomed waning signs of banking sector stress - Dow rose +195-points or +0.60%, with International Business Machines (IBM) Corp (up +3.21%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (+2.87%) among the notable positive contributors. The broader S&P500 added +0.20%, with the Energy (up +2.10%) leading eight of the eleven primary sectors higher. Communication Services (down -1.08%) and Information technology (-0.85%) sat at the bottom of the primary sector leaderboard. The Nasdaq settled -0.47% lower. Apple Inc fell -1.23%, with a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealing that Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jeff Williams sold US$30M in stock last week. Mr Williams sale of 187,730 shares at an average price of US$159.76 was made in conjunction with a 10b5-1 trading plan, which lets executives and other company insiders arrange for stock sales to take place under certain conditions like timing and pricing. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 rose +1.08%.
