US STOCKS-Wall St stays near record high as Mnuchin says trade pact to be signed in Jan.

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* Nasdaq hits fresh record high
* Weekly jobless claims fall from over two-year high
* Conagra eyes best day in over 30 years
* Cisco gains on helping boost Dow
* Indexes up: Dow 0.3%, S&P 0.2%, Nasdaq 0.3%

(Updates to open)
By Uday Sampath Kumar
Dec 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street hovered near record highs on
Thursday as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said
Washington and Beijing would sign an initial trade deal in early
January, with traders also shrugging off the impeachment of
President Donald Trump.
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Mnuchin said the
agreement had already been put down on paper, and that it would
not be subject to any renegotiation. The Nasdaq .IXIC hit a fresh record high, riding a wave
that began last week with a breakthrough in trade talks between
the world's top two economies and hopes for a smoother Brexit,
which also lifted global sentiment and eased recession fears.
Data on Thursday showed the U.S. labor market was only
strengthening, with the number of Americans filing applications
for unemployment benefits dropping from more than a two-year
high last week. The S&P 500 .SPX was trading just below its all-time high.
The benchmark index hit record highs for the past five
consecutive sessions in its longest streak since January 2018.
The market also looked past Trump's impeachment, as the
Republican-controlled Senate is widely expected not to convict
him and remove him from office. With no major update on the U.S.-China trade war or economic
policy decision expected in what is left of 2019, analysts said
the market had little incentive to move much from current
levels.
Trading volumes are also expected to taper off ahead of the
Christmas holidays.
"The market seems to be stalling out, unless people start to
use that as a reason to take some money off the table, which I
don't necessarily see happening," said Robert Pavlik, chief
investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
At 10:42 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 72.60 points, or 0.26%, at 28,311.88, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 5.61 points, or 0.18%, at 3,196.75 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 25.81 points, or 0.29%, at 8,853.54.
Conagra Brands CAG.N rose 17.9%, on track for its best day
in over 30 years, after the Slim Jim maker beat quarterly sales
and profit estimates. Cisco CSCO.O was up 2.6% as Barclays raised its rating on
the stock to "overweight".
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.25-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.12-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 24 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 71 new highs and 24 new lows.

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