Wall Street close: Benchmarks make record closes

• US  benchmarks make  further gains and record closes.  
• US trade “the officials “reached consensus on properly resolving relevant issues” and investors cheered.  

Wall Street stocks ended higher again on Tuesday with fresh record closes for major stock indexes as investors cheered retailers and lapped up the good news in trade-deal headlines.  

The benchmarks were eeking out further gains with the Dow Jones Industrial Average,  DJIA,  climbing  around 55 points, or 0.2%, to end near 28,121.  The S&P 500 added around  7 points, or 0.2%, to close around 3,140.  The Nasdaq Composite  advanced around 15 points, or 0.2%, to end near 8,648.  

Trade headlines  keep spirits up

A Bloomberg article stated that “the officials “reached consensus on properly resolving relevant issues” and agreed to stay in contact on the remaining points for a so-called phase one pact, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.  The US  Trade Representative’s office confirmed a meeting took place but declined to comment on the contents.”

Meanwhile, in corporate news, stocks in retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. helped nudge  S&P 500 higher for a 10% gain after reporting third-quarter earnings and revenue  that beat expectations.

US data came in  mixed  

• US new home sales for Oct beat expectations at 733k (vs est. 705k), while Sep sales were revised up to 738k from 701k. CoreLogic Sep house prices rose +3.2%y/y. Richmond Fed Nov manufacturing survey fell to -1 from +8 and disappointed estimates of +5. New orders and employment components fell.

• The Conference Board’s US consumer confidence survey fell to 125.5 in Nov (vs est. 127.0, prior 126.1) but remains close to its cycle highs. Despite the fall in the present situation measure (166.9 from 173.5) the expectations measure notably rose to 97.9 from 94.5. Wholesale inventories for Oct were in line with expectations at +0.2%m/m, though Sep was revised to -0.7%m/m from -0.4%m/m –

analysts at Westpac explained.  

DJIA  levels