US STOCKS-Wall St hits record highs on trade optimism, Apple gains

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* Easing geopolitical tensions spur risk-on mood
* Apple, banks rally on positive brokerage comments
* Kohl's slides on lower holiday season sales
* Indexes up: Dow 0.7%, S&P 0.6%, Nasdaq 0.7%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks hit record highs on
Thursday as optimism about a U.S.-China trade deal firmed and as
Apple and other market heavyweights posted strong gains.
Easing Middle East tensions added to the bullish sentiment.
Apple Inc AAPL.O gained 1.7% on twin support from data
showing iPhone sales jumped more than 18% in China in December,
as well as a price target hike by Jefferies on expectations of a
strong finish to 2019. The S&P 500 technology
sector .SPLRCT rose 0.9%, the top gainer among sectors.
The financial index .SPSY was up 0.62% after bullish
brokerage comments on Citigroup Inc C.N and Goldman Sachs
Group Inc GS.N ahead of their earnings.
After a wobbly start to the new year on fears of an all-out
conflict in the Middle East, nerves eased as Washington and
Tehran looked to defuse the crisis after Iran's retaliatory
attack following the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general.
Investors have had resolution on the trade front and an
economic environment that is keeping interest rates low, which
has kept the market trending higher, said Rick Meckler, partner,
Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New
Vernon, New Jersey.
"We had a brief pause here about Iran but even that
situation, in investors' minds, is resolved."
In another support to stocks, China's commerce ministry said
Vice Premier Liu He will sign a Phase 1 trade deal in Washington
next week. President Donald Trump said his administration will start
negotiating the Phase 2 trade agreement soon but that he might
wait to complete any agreement until after November's
presidential election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 191.74 points,
or 0.67%, to 28,936.83, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 18.21 points,
or 0.56%, to 3,271.26 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
61.75 points, or 0.68%, to 9,190.99.
Among the weak spots was the department store operator
Kohl's Corp KSS.N , which slid 7.2% after reporting lower
holiday season sales and warning of full-year earnings coming in
at the bottom end of an already lowered forecast. Smaller rival J.C. Penney Co Inc JCP.N tumbled 11.3% after
disappointing same-store sales numbers.
With the fourth-quarter earnings season kicking off next
week, analysts expect profits for S&P 500 companies to drop 0.6%
in their second consecutive quarterly decline, according to IBES
data from Refinitiv.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.36-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.49-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 77 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 147 new highs and 12 new lows.