Stocks jumped to within 1% of an all-time high after President Donald Trump tweeted this morning that he spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and plans more "extensive" talks during the Group of 20 meeting next week. The tweet helped to build on gains sparked by a signal from the head of the ECB that he is ready to cut interest rates if needed, though the S&P rally eased a bit following a report that the Trump administration had previously explored demoting Jerome Powell, whom the President has been very vocal in criticizing over rate policy.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., housing starts fell 0.9% to a 1.27M rate in May. Building permits rose 0.3% to a rate of 1.29M.
In Fed news, Bloomberg reported that the White House in February explored the legality of demoting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. CNBC's Eamon Javers later reported that White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that the Trump administration is not taking any actions to change Powell's status.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Facebook (FB) were in focus after the company shared its plans for Calibra, a recently formed subsidiary that will introduce a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology.
Meanwhile, MoneyGram (MGI) shares got a big boost from a link to a cryptocurrency player. The small-cap stock surged over 167% to close at $3.88 after the company entered into a strategic agreement with Ripple. The pact will enable MoneyGram to utilize Ripple's xRapid product, "leveraging XRP in foreign exchange settlement as part of MoneyGram's cross-border payment process," according to an announcement made last night. Ripple will also invest in MoneyGram.
After Boeing (BA) spent the first day of the Paris Air Show without announcing an order, the company changed that this morning with order confirmations from Korean Air and Air Lease (AL) as well as a letter of intent from International Airlines Group (ICAGY) for 200 737-8 and 737-10 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Dish (DISH) is in talks to pay at least $6B for assets that T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S) are selling in order to gain regulatory clearance for their proposed merger.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was G1 Therapeutics (GTHX), which rose 24% after announcing preliminary overall survival results from a randomized Phase 2 trial, which demonstrated that women with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer lived significantly longer when receiving trilaciclib and chemotherapy compared with women receiving chemotherapy alone. Also higher was SunPower (SPWR), which gained 22.6% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral.
Among the notable losers was GCP Applied Technologies (GCP), which slid 13.2% after it issued an open letter to shareholders saying it plans to pursue a standalone strategic plan. Also lower was Unity Biotechnology (UBX), which fell 7.2% after announcing results from its first-in-human Phase 1 study of UBX0101 in patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis of the knee.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 353.01, or 1.35%, to 26,465.54, the Nasdaq gained 108.86, or 1.39%, to 7,953.88, and the S&P 500 advanced 27.64, or 0.96%, to 2,917.31.
Ticker changed to META
-0.43 (-0.23%)
MoneyGram
+2.44 (+169.44%)
Boeing
+19.31 (+5.44%)
Air Lease
+1.205 (+3.12%)
Merged into SATS
+0.08 (+0.21%)
T-Mobile
+1.26 (+1.67%)
SentinelOne
+0.12 (+1.69%)
G1 Therapeutics
+4.67 (+23.63%)
SunPower
+1.89 (+22.85%)
GCP Applied Technologies
-3.535 (-13.41%)
Unity Biotechnology
-0.66 (-7.18%)