US STOCKS-Wall Street sets records on trade progress optimism

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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 0.68%, S&P 500 up 0.75%, Nasdaq up 1.32%

(Updates to market close)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
Nov 25 (Reuters) - Each of Wall Street's three major
averages kicked off the trading week by closing at records on
Monday as signs pointed to progress between the United States
and China on a trade truce, while a round of merger deals also
helped buoy sentiment.
A Chinese state-backed tabloid said Beijing and Washington
were "very close" to an initial pact, which lifted
trade-sensitive semiconductor stocks, including Applied
Materials Inc AMAT.O , up 4.18% and Lam Research Corp LRCX.O ,
which gained 2.68%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX
jumped 2.43% and was on pace for its best day in just over three
weeks. Nvidia Corp NVDA.O rose 4.89% 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. "Trade is the fulcrum of investor emotions," said Sam
Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New
York.
"If they are feeling good that we will get some sort of an
agreement then the market is up 100 points, if they are feeling
the other way then the market is down 100 points."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 189.77 points,
or 0.68%, to 28,065.39, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 23.29 points,
or 0.75%, to 3,133.58 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
112.60 points, or 1.32%, to 8,632.49.
Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.75% 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 6.20% 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 7.58% 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 2.30%.
EBay Inc EBAY.O gained 2.08% 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. Monday marked the fourth closing record for the
Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq in the past seven sessions.
Failing to participate in the advance, Uber Technologies
UBER.N slipped 1.52% 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
2.75-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.30-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 40 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 139 new highs and 61 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.55 billion shares, compared
to the 7.03 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.