Major Averages Climbing To New Highs For The Session

(RTTNews) - After turning lower over the course of the previous session, stocks have moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. With the upward move on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has reached a new record intraday high.

In recent trading, the major averages have reached new highs for the session. The Dow is up 75.70 points or 0.3 percent at 28,899.47, the Nasdaq is up 64.67 points or 0.7 percent at 9,243.53 and the S&P 500 is up 16.57 points or 0.5 percent at 3,281.92.

The strength on Wall Street comes amid optimism about the phase one U.S.-China trade deal due to be signed later this week.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is scheduled to visit Washington to sign the deal, which is said to include reduced tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for increased Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the agreement calls for China to purchase $40 to $50 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products annually.

Mnuchin described the agreement as "very, very extensive," although the deal will not completely resolve the trade dispute between the U.S. and China.

Buying interest has remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to earnings news from financial giants Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) in the coming days.

Reports on consumer and producer price inflation, retail sales, homebuilder confidence, and industrial production may also attract attention later this week.

Sector News

Steel stocks continue to turn in some of the market's best performances amid optimism about the impact of the U.S.-China trade deal, with the NYSE Arca Steel Index climbing by 1.7 percent.

Considerable strength is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Semiconductor, chemical and brokerage stocks are also seeing notable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

On the other hand, biotechnology and gold stocks are seeing substantial weakness on the day, partly offsetting the strength seen in the aforementioned sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday, with the Japanese markets closed for a holiday. China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.8 percent, while South Korea's Kospi jumped by 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are giving back ground after moving higher over the two previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 2.4 basis points at 1.849 percent.