US STOCKS-Trade optimism fuels S&P, Nasdaq to records

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* U.S.-China 'very close' to trade deal - report
* Tiffany jumps after $16.2 bln buyout offer from LVMH
* TD Ameritrade rises on $26 bln deal with Charles Schwab
* Dow up 0.51%, S&P 500 up 0.63%, Nasdaq up 1.23%

(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
Nov 25 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes
climbed to new record highs on Monday as signs indicated the
United States and China were moving closer to a trade truce,
while a host of merger deals also helped buoy sentiment.
A Chinese state-backed tabloid said Beijing and Washington
were "very close" to an initial pact, and lifted trade-sensitive
semiconductor stocks, including Applied Materials Inc AMAT.O ,
up 3.98% and Lam Research Corp LRCX.O , which gained 2.42%. The
Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX jumped 2.32% and was on
pace for its best day in just over three weeks. Nvidia Corp NVDA.O rose 4.59% and paced the gains on the
chip index as Morgan Stanley upgraded its shares to "overweight"
from "equal weight". The report came on the heels of comments over the weekend by
a top U.S. official that an agreement was still possible by the
end of the year, dampening worries the negotiations could spill
over into 2020. "Any optimism on the trade front is always welcome," said
Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at Globalt in Atlanta.
"Hopefully what is taking place is a signal that without a
derailment coming into the end of the year, from a trade
perspective, everything else seems to be somewhat intact and you
can tack on incremental positives, whether it is M&A, or
macroeconomic data."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 142.01 points,
or 0.51%, to 28,017.63, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 19.52 points,
or 0.63%, to 3,129.81 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
104.78 points, or 1.23%, to 8,624.66.
Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.18% as the top boost to the S&P
and Nasdaq and the second-biggest lift to the price-weighted Dow
Jones Industrial Average.
Gains on Monday were broad with only the defensive consumer
staples .SPLRCS and utilities .SPLRCU S&P sectors in the
red. Tech .SPLRCT gains helped push the Nasdaq .IXIC up by
more than 1 percent, with the group on pace for its best day
since Nov. 1.
Tiffany & Co TIF.N jumped 6.29% and was the biggest gainer
on the S&P 500 as the luxury jeweler agreed to a sweetened $16.2
billion deal to be acquired by France's LVMH LVMH.PA .
U.S. discount brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp AMTD.O
was up 6.03% after larger rival Charles Schwab Corp SCHW.N
said it would buy the company in an all-stock deal valued at
about $26 billion. Schwab rose 1.19%.
EBay Inc EBAY.O gained 2.05% after the e-commerce major
said it would sell ticketing unit StubHub to ticket reseller
Viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash. Major averages on Wall Street have reached a series of new
highs recently on hopes for progress of a trade deal and
third-quarter corporate earnings came in better than lowered
expectations.
Failing to participate in the advance, Uber Technologies
UBER.N slipped 1.44% as the ride-hailing company was stripped
of its license to carry paying passengers in London for the
second time in just over two years. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.17-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 35 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 119 new highs and 51 new lows.