Wall Street stocks up on progress with North Korea and Italy’s forming a new government

• The latest geopolitical developments reveal that the US and North Korean leaders are likely to meet on June 12 in Singapore.  
• The Five-Star Movement and the League finally reached a deal to form a government sending a wave of relief into stock markets.  

The three main US stock indices rose on Friday. The S&P 500 Index was up 1.08% to 2,734.62 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.90% to 24,635.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose as much as 1.51% to 7,554.33 on the last day of the week.  

US stocks went up as the US and North Korea leaders are likely to meet on June 12 in Singapore. It worth noting that the summit had been canceled many times already.

US President Trump said that it is a development “over a period of time” and more than just one meeting. “I think it’ll be a process. I never said it goes in one meeting.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a meeting with North Korean officials this week as they discussed the possibility of the US-North Korea summit. Trump tweeted that his administration had a “very good meetings with North Korea.”

Over in Italy, the Five-Star Movement and the League finally reached a deal to form a government and the news triggered a wave a positive sentiment in stocks in Europe and the US as well. In fact, markets were rather fearful  that Italy might be on the brink of exiting the Eurozone.

On the macroeconomic front, the US added 223K jobs in May against 178K expected according to the Non-Farm Payrolls  report while  wages’ growth (Average Hourly Earnings) matched analysts expectations at 2.7% in May. The unemployment rate came slightly better at 3.8% versus 3.9% expected by analysts. The news had no major effect on US indices which closed in the green on Friday. The greenback was also pretty much unaffected by the news.

Dow Jones daily chart