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Stocks Soar On Trade Optimism And Earnings

Stocks soared yesterday on last week's trade deal, future trade talks, and the start of earnings season.

Last week's phase 1 trade agreement with China continued to buoy the market. The U.S. agricultural sector will be one of the big beneficiaries as China has vowed to step up grain and livestock purchases. China, however, is vying for a reduction in previously imposed tariffs, in addition to the October 15th tariffs that were just abrogated.

While many of the more difficult issues were left for future negotiations, the cooperation shown by both countries was cheered by the markets as it's clear that real progress was indeed made last week.

Both parties still need to finalize the documentation of the agreement, but that is expected to come before the next round of tariffs is set to take effect on December 15th. And assuming it does, it's likely those tariffs will be canceled as well.

In other news, earnings season got off to a solid start with plenty of big names in the financial industry beating expectations. JP Morgan and insurance giant UnitedHealth were two standout performers yesterday.

We'll get another 199 companies reporting earnings by week's end, then another 801 next week.

Given that stocks typically go up during earnings season, coupled with some good news to celebrate on the trade front, it looks like stocks are poised for an upside breakout. And since the S&P is just about 1% away from their all-time highs, it won't take much to do so.

As we've been saying, these are historic times for the economy, and historic times for the market.

So make sure you're talking full advantage of it.

See you tomorrow,

Kevin Matras

Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research

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