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Indexes up: Dow 0.51%, S&P 500 0.86%, Nasdaq 1.4%

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Rare earth miners fall on signs of U.S.-China trade deal

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U.S.-listed Argentina stocks gain after Milei's election

(Updates on market open)

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, 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

rose 238.57 points, or 0.51%, to 47,445.69, the S&P 500

gained 58.69 points, or 0.86%, to 6,850.38 and the Nasdaq

Composite gained 324.40 points, or 1.40%, to 23,529.27.

The rate-sensitive Russell 2000 rose 1.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies gained. Alibaba

Group Holding, JD.com and PDD Holdings ( PDD )

rose over 2% each. Baidu added 5%.

Rare earth miners fell with MP Materials ( MP ), USA Rare

Earth ( USAR ) and NYSE-listed shares of Trilogy Metals

down 5.6%, 11% and 15%, respectively.

Keurig Dr Pepper ( KDP ) 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 added

1.2%. Lululemon shares were up 2.8% after the company

announced a partnership with NFL to launch an apparel

collection.

Tech stocks added 1.4% with Intel and

Super Micro Computer both rising more than 4%.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index also hit a

fresh record high.

U.S.-listed shares Of Argentine companies jumped after

President Javier Milei's election victory.

YPF gained 35%, while Grupo Supervielle and

Banco Macro rose more than 40% each. Banco BBVA

Argentina rose 45% and Grupo Financiero Galicia

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 )

, Apple ( AAPL ), Alphabet, Amazon ( AMZN ),

and Meta 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 ) 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.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru;

Editing by Pooja Desai and Devika Syamnath)