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* Weekly jobless claims fall from over two-year high
* Conagra eyes best day in over 30 years
* Micron up 4% after signaling 2020 recovery
* Cisco biggest to tech sector
* Indexes up: Dow 0.3%, S&P 0.3%, Nasdaq 0.5%
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Uday Sampath Kumar
Dec 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street hit all-time highs again on
Thursday as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said an
initial U.S.-China trade deal would be signed in early January,
adding to optimism that was fueled by a breakthrough in trade
talks last week.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Mnuchin said the
agreement had already been put down on paper, and that it was
completely finished and just undergoing a technical "scrub."
The S&P 500 .SPX hit a sixth straight intraday record
high, its longest streak since January 2018, riding a wave that
began last week with hopes of a trade truce between the world's
top two economies and expectations for a smoother Brexit.
The Dow Industrials .DJI and the Nasdaq .IXIC also hit
record highs.
U.S. stocks will continue to have an upward bias until the
start of 2020, when investors will look for more specific
details in the trade agreement, said Michael Arone, chief
investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
"Investors are essentially waiting to see what happens next,
moving from a 'tell-me-something-good' environment to
'show-me-something-good'," Arone said.
Further boosting optimism around the strength of the U.S.
economy and labor market, data on Thursday showed the number of
Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits dropping
from more than a two-year high last week.
The market also shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's
impeachment, as the Republican-controlled Senate is widely
expected to not convict and remove him from office. At 12:57 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 92.31 points, or 0.33%, at 28,331.59, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 10.00 points, or 0.31%, at 3,201.14 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 40.65 points, or 0.46%, at 8,868.39.
Conagra Brands CAG.N jumped 16.3%, on track for its best
day ever, after the Slim Jim maker beat quarterly sales and
profit estimates. Conagra's results also lifted other packaged food makers and
helped boost the consumer staples sector .SPLRCS 0.6%.
Micron Technology Inc MU.O gained 3.9% after signaling a
recovery in its business in 2020 and saying it had received
licenses to supply some products to Huawei. The technology sector .SPLRCT was the biggest boost among
the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, helped in large part by a 2.7%
rise in Cisco's shares after Barclays upgraded the stock.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.49-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by 1.31-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 32 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 101 new highs and 31 new lows.
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