Wall St ends higher as investors parse US-Iran negotiations, threats

STORY: U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday with the Nasdaq leading Wall Street's main indexes with a more than half-a-percent gain."The entire country can be taken out in one night."President Donald Trump has threatened to escalate the war if Iran fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.:: Majid Asgaripour/WANABut investors drew some reassurance from a report that indicated the U.S., Iran and a group of regional mediators continued to discuss terms of a potential ceasefire deal.That helped stocks edge higher, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gaining for the fourth consecutive session, their longest winning streaks since January.Jeff Schulze, head of economic and market strategy for ClearBridge Investments, said that while volatility will likely continue, so too should stocks' recent upward momentum."Investors are using the playbook of buying the geopolitical dip. When you go back to 1950, there's been over 20 military conflicts. And if you had bought the day that that conflict began, the S&P 500 has been positive 3% over the next three months and positive almost 6% over the next six months. And with the S&P 500 down almost 5% over the last month, we think that this is probably a good buying opportunity for investors, given the resilience of the U.S. economy.”Stocks on the move Monday included Soleno Therapeutics, which jumped more than 32% after Neurocrine Biosciences agreed to acquire the rare-disease drugmaker for $2.9 billion in cash.Rising bitcoin prices boosted crypto-linked firms, with U.S.-listed shares of Coinbase gaining about 2% and Strategy climbing 6.5%.And shares of memory chipmaker Seagate Technology gained 5.5% after Morgan Stanley added it to its top-pick list.