Wall Street scales fresh highs on tech earnings, trade optimism

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes posted record closing highs for the second session in a row on Monday, with the Dow adding nearly three-quarters of a percent, the S&P 500 climbing almost one and a quarter percent to close above 6,800 for the first time ever and the Nasdaq soaring just under 2%.A confluence of events kickstarted the week for stocks, says Brad Bernstein, managing director at UBS Private Wealth Management."We have the Fed (U.S. Federal Reserve) on Wednesday with another rate cut. We have (U.S. President Donald) Trump-(Leader of China) XI (Jinping) meeting on Thursday in Asia. And we have a third of the S&P 500 reporting earnings this week, with five of the Mag Seven (Magnificent Seven). But what's really contributing to the positive sentiment in markets today is the positive, you know, commentary from Treasury Secretary (Scott) Bessent yesterday, related to the framework for a really good trade deal on Thursday for Trump and Xi to agree to."U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies were among the day's winners, with Alibaba Group, JD.com, PDD Holdings and Baidu all rallying.And chip stocks surged, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index hitting a fresh record high.The sector was boosted by an 11% gain in Qualcomm, which unveiled two AI chips for data centers, with commercial availability beginning next year. AI chip leader Nvidia also rose.Other movers included Keurig Dr Pepper, which gained more than seven and a half percent after lifting its annual sales forecast and raising about $7 billion to finance its purchase of Dutch coffee giant JDE Peet's.The market rally will be tested later this week when earnings roll in from five of the heavyweight "Magnificent Seven" megacaps, including Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.