Sawt Falasteen - Wall Street stocks hit fresh records on easing US-China worries

Major indices in New York charged higher, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all finishing at records on the improved sentiment on trade talks. Monday's buoyant session also featured heady gains by Microsoft, Facebook parent Meta and other tech giants ahead of earnings later this week.

Argentina's stocks soared more than 20 percent on the back of President Javier Milei's midterm victory, which saw his party win the biggest amount of votes in weekend legislative elections. The peso also jumped.

European stock markets were muted, reined in by anticipation of interest-rate decisions this week from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, although Spain's index reached a record high from strong growth and corporate earnings.

Overall the positive sentiment was "buoyed by weekend chatter suggesting that Washington and Beijing may finally be finding some common ground" and pulling back from painful tit-for-tat trade measures, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com.

"All eyes now turn to Thursday's meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which could see these tentative understandings formalized," he said.

Gold prices retreated on easing risk sentiment.

Trump arrived in Japan on Monday as part of a tour of Asia that could see the US president and Xi end their bruising trade war.

Speaking on Air Force One, Trump said he was hopeful of a deal when he sees Xi Thursday, while also indicating he was willing to extend his trip to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

China's vice commerce minister, Li Chenggang, said a "preliminary consensus" had been reached.

The progress paves the way for Trump and Xi to meet Thursday in South Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, their first face-to-face meeting since the US leader returned to office.

Chinese stock indices closed up more than one percent Monday.

The advances followed a strong finish Friday on Wall Street, after benign US inflation data set the stage for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut on Wednesday, despite a lack of clarity over the health of the US economy as a government shutdown churns on.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank is expected to hold borrowing costs steady for its third straight meeting, with eurozone inflation largely under control.

In corporate news, shares in US chipmaker Qualcomm soared 11.2 percent after the company unveiled two new AI processors designed for data centers, pushing into a market dominated by rivals Nvidia and AMD.

Keurig Dr. Pepper jumped 7.6 percent after lifting its full-year sales forecast and as it announced it had received $7 billion in investment agreements from affiliates of Apollo and KKR.

- Key figures at around 1630 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 47,435.81 points

New York - S&P: UP 1.0 percent at 6,857.90

New York - Nasdaq: UP 1.6 percent at 23,580.33

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,653.82 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 8,239.18 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 24,308.78 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.5 percent at 50,512.32 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.2 percent at 3,996.94 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.1 percent at 26,433.70 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1646 from $1.1627 on Friday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3333 from $1.3311

Dollar/yen: UP at 152.90 yen from 152.86 yen

Euro/pound: FLAT at 87.35 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $65.62 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $61.31 per barrel

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST