Stocks set for gains as Congress nears debt ceiling deal

End of this year will be ‘dangerous time’ for markets: Expert

Macro Intelligence 2 Partners co-founder Julian Brigden on what will happen to the stock market if the debt ceiling is extended through December.

U.S. stock futures surged Thursday morning after lawmakers neared a short-term deal to raise the debt ceiling. 

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 252 points, or 0.73%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.84% and 1.08%, respectively. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said early Thursday that "good progress" has been made on debt ceiling negotiations but that a deal has not yet been reached. A report out Wednesday said Republicans were willing to raise the limit until December but that they wanted a deal tied to a number and not a date. 

In stocks, mega cap technology companies, including Apple Inc., Amazon Inc. and Microsoft Corp., were on track for a third straight day of gains.  

Meanwhile, IAC/Interactive Corp. agreed to buy magazine publisher Meredith for $42.18 per share, or $2.7 billion. The deal does not include the local media group Gray Television, which was sold for $16.99 per share and is scheduled to close later this year. 

Twitter Inc. reached a deal to sell mobile ad company MoPub to AppLovin for $1.05 billion cash. Twitter bought the company in 2013 in a deal that was estimated to be worth more than $350 million.

Elsewhere, Costco Wholesale Corp. said September sales spiked 15.8% from a year ago, topping analysts’ forecasts. 

Levi Strauss & Co. reported earnings and revenue that exceed estimates as back-to-school shopping boosted sales. 

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil dipped $1.16 to $76.27 a barrel and gold edged up 60 cents to $1762.40 an ounce. 

Overseas markets were in rally mode.

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European bourse were sharply higher with Britain’s FTSE 100 gaining 1.07%, Germany’s DAX 30 rising 1.23% and France’s CAC 40 advancing 1.43%. 

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index soared 3.07% ad Japan’s Nikkei 225 ticked up 0.54%. China’s Shanghai Composite remained closed for holiday. 

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