US STOCKS-Wall Street scales new highs on US-China trade optimism

By Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit

Oct 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes notched record highs on Monday as expectations of a U.S.-China trade deal fueled risk-taking at the start of a week dominated by Big Tech earnings and a likely Federal Reserve rate cut.

U.S. President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping are set to meet on Thursday to decide on the framework for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls.

Wall Street's fear gauge, the VIX .VIX, hit a one-month low. Earlier this month, Trump's revival of the trade war had sent the volatility index to its highest level since the April rollout of his "Liberation Day" tariffs.

At 10:28 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 238.57 points, or 0.51%, to 47,445.69, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 58.69 points, or 0.86%, to 6,850.38 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 324.40 points, or 1.40%, to 23,529.27.

The rate-sensitive Russell 2000 .RUT rose 1.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies gained. Alibaba Group Holding BABA.N, JD.com JD.O and PDD Holdings PDD.O rose over 2% each. Baidu BIDU.O added 5%.

Rare earth miners fell with MP Materials MP.N, USA Rare Earth USAR.O and NYSE-listed shares of Trilogy Metals TMQ.N down 5.6%, 11% and 15%, respectively.

Keurig Dr Pepper KDP.O jumped 6.2% after lifting its annual sales forecast and raising about $7 billion to finance its purchase of Dutch coffee giant JDE Peet's.

The S&P's consumer discretionary index .SPLRCD added 1.2%. Lululemon LULU.O shares were up 2.8% after the company announced a partnership with NFL to launch an apparel collection.

Tech stocks .SPLRCT added 1.4% with Intel .INTC and Super Micro Computer both rising more than 4%.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX also hit a fresh record high.

U.S.-listed shares Of Argentine companies jumped after President Javier Milei's election victory.

YPF YPF.N gained 35%, while Grupo Supervielle SUPV.N and Banco Macro BMA.N rose more than 40% each. Banco BBVA Argentina BBAR.N rose 45% and Grupo Financiero Galicia GGAL.O advanced 42%.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments on Wednesday will be carefully scrutinized for hints on a December cut amid a government shutdown that has blocked economic releases.

"The lack of official inflation data will be supportive of the rally in the near term because monetary policy could be operating with an increasingly blind spot heading into the new year," said Jordan Rizzuto, CIO at GammaRoad Capital Partners.

BLOCKBUSTER EARNINGS

As the busiest week of this earnings season kicks off, more than 170 companies are expected to report and all eyes will be on Big Tech.

Earnings from "Magnificent Seven" heavyweights Microsoft MSFT.O, Apple AAPL.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O, Amazon AMZN.O, and Meta META.O will act as a litmus test for Wall Street's lofty valuations, the staying power of the rally and the long-term viability of outsized bets on artificial intelligence.

The seven megacaps were up between 1.4% and 2.4%.

Together, they make up nearly 35% of the S&P 500 benchmark, which is now expected to see third-quarter earnings growth of 10.4% year-on-year, higher than an earlier estimate of 8.8%, according to LSEG data.

"If the economy softens enough, it could alleviate concerns about inflationary pressures, but it could introduce pressure on earnings growth which needs to catch up with valuation expansion to sustain this rally going into 2026," Rizzuto said.

Among other stocks, Janus Henderson JHG.N shares jumped 18.7% after confirming an acquisition proposal from Trian and General Catalyst.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.99-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.54-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and two new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 102 new highs and 29 new lows.