US STOCKS-Wall Street steady as U.S., China announce trade deal

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* Major indexes hit record highs
* U.S.-China announce Phase 1 trade deal
* Adobe rises after results, Broadcom falls
* Indexes up: Dow 0.01%, S&P 500 0.01%, Nasdaq 0.2%

(Updates with close of U.S. market)
By Lewis Krauskopf
Dec 13 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow industrials ended
little changed on Friday, hitting record highs in the session,
as the United States and China announced an initial trade
agreement, cooling tensions that have rattled markets.
The S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT and the tech-heavy
Nasdaq .IXIC finished solidly in positive territory, with
gains in Apple Inc AAPL.O providing a boost.
Trading was choppy following announcement of the agreement,
which reduces some U.S. tariffs in exchange for increased
Chinese purchases of American farm goods. The United States has
agreed to suspend tariffs on $160 billion in Chinese goods that
were due to take effect on Dec. 15, a deadline that had been
closely watched by investors. "The risk of trade (dispute) escalation has been averted for
now, and that's a positive," said Sunitha Thomas, regional
portfolio advisor at Northern Trust Wealth Management in
Chicago.
Investors were also digesting Prime Minister Boris Johnson's
commanding victory in the British election, which could bring
more clarity to the country's planned exit from the European
Union. "We got confirmation today that two major risks that have
been weighing on the market all year have been lifted, for now
at least," Thomas said.
"The market is not up more because we have had some of the
rally coming into it, and I think there is now a recognition
that there needs to be policy follow-through on the negotiation
of Brexit and also what really the details of this deal between
China and the U.S. are," Thomas said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 3.33 points, or
0.01%, to 28,135.38, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.23 point, or
0.01%, to 3,168.8 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 17.56
points, or 0.2%, to 8,734.88.
Utilities .SPLRCU led gains among the S&P 500 sectors
along with tech, while energy .SPNY and materials .SPLRCM
lagged.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% for the week, its ninth rise out the
past 10 weeks.
Improving sentiment about trade tensions, interest rate cuts
from the U.S. Federal Reserve and encouraging economic data have
fueled records for the major U.S. stock indexes. The benchmark
S&P 500 has gained 26% so far in 2019.
Earlier this week, the Fed signaled borrowing costs will not
change anytime soon. In company news, Adobe Inc ADBE.O shares rose 3.9% after
it beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue and
profit. Broadcom Inc AVGO.O shares dropped 3.8% after the company
provided a lukewarm revenue forecast for 2020. Oracle Corp ORCL.N shares fell 3.5% after its revenue fell
short of quarterly estimates. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.19-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.07-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 76 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 128 new highs and 49 new lows.
About 7.4 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges,
above the 6.8 billion-share daily average over the last 20
sessions.

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