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Stock Market News For May 22, 2018

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Markets closed sharply higher on Monday as trade war tensions between the United States and China declined for the time being. This saw a rally in industrials stocks. Both the Dow and S&P 500 closed at their highest level since March. All the three indexes ended the day in positive territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 1.2% to close at 25013.29. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to close at 2,733.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 7,394.04, gaining 0.5%. A total of 5.8 billion shares were traded on Monday, lower than the last 20-session average of 6.6 billion shares. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 2.43-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.59-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.

How did the Benchmark Perform?

The Dow gained 298.20 points. This is also the first time since March 12 that the Dow has closed about 25,000. Shares of Caterpillar (CAT - Free Report) , United Technologies and Boeing (BA - Free Report) were the best performers. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 39.70 points.

The S&P 500 gained 20.04 points, with the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI) gaining 1.5%. All the 11 major sectors ended in positive territory. The S&P 500 also registered its best performance since mid-March. 

U.S.-China Trade War Fears Ease

Trade war tensions between the United States and China have been brewing for quite some time now. This had severely dented the confidence of investors. However, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said, “We are putting the trade war on hold.” The two countries on Saturday started negations to avoid a possible trade war. Further, negotiators said that they would continue discussing measures so that China starts importing more energy and agricultural products from the United States to narrow the $335 billion annual trade deficit with China.

Mnuchin’s statement reinstated the confidence of investors, which saw stocks rallying. Industrials were the biggest gainers as they would stand to benefit the most if a trade war is averted. Shares of Boeing, Caterpillar and United Technologies jumped 3.6%, 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Boeing has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (String Buy) stocks here.

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TransUnion (TRU - Free Report) to Acquire HPS, Boost Healthcare Suite

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Southern Company Inks $6.5B Divestment Deal to Reduce Debt

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