US close: Small gains on the Street as positive news flows from trade talks
US stocks closed slightly higher on Monday amid signs of progress in Sino-US trade relations.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.23% at 26,091.95, while the S&P 500 had moved ahead 0.12% to 2,796.11 and the Nasdaq picked up 0.36% at 7,554.46.
The Dow closed 60 points higher on Monday, shedding some stronger gains earlier in the session, as investors breathed a sigh of relief after Donald Trump said overnight that the 1 March deadline for the implementation of higher tariffs on Chinese imports would be delayed.
Trump tweeted: "I am pleased to report that the US has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues.
"As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the US increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1. Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement."
However, market participants were also mulling an article from Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, which stressed that the talks could prove to be more challenging in the final stages and were subject to unspecified "new uncertainties".
It went on to say that the trade conflict between the two nations will be "long term, complex and difficult".
In corporate news, Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical company Spark Therapeutics was up a whopping 120.09% at the end of the session after agreeing to be bought by Switzerland's Roche in a $4.3bn cash deal. The offer price of $114.50 per share represents a premium of around 122% to Spark's closing price on Friday.
Elsewhere, General Electric shares were up 6.39% at the closing bell after the group agreed to sell its BioPharma business to Danaher for $21.4bn.
Newmont Mining Corp lost 1.04% after Barrick Gold Corp revealed it had made an unsolicited bid to buy the rival gold miner in a deal that values it at nearly $18bn.
Kraft Heinz dipped 2.06% following reports the company was looking to sell its Maxwell House coffee division.
Etsy shot up 8.98% in after-hours trade, while Shake Shack climbed 6.22% following the bell as both firm's turned in their earnings.
On the data front, the Chicago Fed national activity index dropped to -0.43 in January from the 0.05 recorded in December, led by declines in production-related indicators.
Analysts were expecting a reading of 0.13.
While the reading was low, the index was even lower as recently as May when it came in at -0.51 after a fire at a parts supplier led to auto production declines in the month.
Elsewhere, wholesale inventories rose 1.1% in December, according to a report severely delayed by the government shutdown earlier in the year.
The rise in inventories was seen as potentially prompting an increase in forecasts for fourth-quarter GDP, however, sales fell 1% in the month as a result of a softer US economy toward the end of the year.