All three major U.S. averages closed at record highs Monday, kicking off the last week of trading for 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the only major index not to hit an intraday peak.
The gains gave the Nasdaq Composite its eighth straight close at all-time highs, making for the longest stretch of consecutive record closes since July 1998.
Concerns over the possibility of a North Korean missile test were contained by signs of further progress in cooling trade tensions between Washington and Beijing as China announced plans to further open its financial markets to private business.
The Ministry of Finance announced on Monday tariff cuts effective Jan. 1 on frozen pork, asthma and diabetes medications, integrated circuit boards and some 850 other products.
The step is intended to promote the coordinated development of trade and environment, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China’s government repeated a promise on Monday to open its oil, telecom and power markets wider to private competitors.
Trade sensitive names moved higher following the report with 3M, Apple and Caterpillar posting early gains.
Boeing shares surged after CEO Dennis Muilenburg resigned. He is replaced by chief financial officer Greg Smith on an interim basis before board member David Calhoun takes over as CEO and president.
Boeing stock is about 23 percent off its 52-week high but its performance as the day’s top-performing stock on the Dow pushes it closer to its pre-737 Max woes days when it was the single-largest contributor to the Dow and was a must-have stock for investors.
Live Nation Entertainment, Zebra Technologies and Steris became the newest members of the S&P 500, replacing Affiliated Managers Group, TripAdvisor and The Macerich Co.
Tesla shares crossed the $420 level on the way to their 10th gain in 12 days, putting further pressure on short-sellers who had already lost $2.46 billion this year betting against the company. The $420 level is where CEO Elon Musk famously tweeted he had “funding secured” to take the company private, leading to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Uber was little changed after a filing out Friday showed co-founder Travis Kalanick dumped more of his stock. He has sold more than 90 percent of his stake over the last seven weeks, amounting to more than $2.5 billion.
Elsewhere, Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. gained after announcing a deal to combine with the sports-betting platform DraftKings in a deal that values the new company at about $3.3 billion. The newly formed company will change its name to DraftKings once the deal closes in the first half of 2020.
Commodities traded rallied with gold up 0.6 percent at $1,489 an ounce and West Texas Intermediate crude oil higher by 0.4 percent at $60.65 a barrel.
U.S. Treasurys were little changed after durable goods orders missed expectations. The yield on the 10-year note was up 1 basis point at 1.93 percent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was flat, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.1 percent and the Shanghai Composite index fell 1.4 percent.
Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5 percent, Germany’s DAX was lower by 0.1 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1 percent higher.
Wall Street ended last week with the S&P 500 notching its 10th winning week in the last 11, finishing with a record high for the fourth time. The Dow and Nasdaq also ended the week at new highs.
Stocks have traditionally climbed in the last five days of each calendar year, plus the first two of the new year. It’s happened often enough that traders call it the “Santa rally.”
