While you were sleeping: Powell testimony spurs Wall St gains

Wall Street climbed to fresh record highs after Jerome Powell, US President Donald Trump's nominee to succeed Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, said financial rules were "tough enough."

Mr Powell made the comments in testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing in Washington, where he also firmed bets the Fed would lift interest rates next month.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 255.93 points, or 1.1%, to 23,836.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.5% to 6912.36, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.0% to 2627.04.

The Dow rose as gains by JPMorgan Chase and Cisco, up 3.5% and 2.0% respectively, outweighed falls in Apple and Nike, down 0.6% and 0.2% respectively.

"When you look at the financials as a group, they probably have a couple of tail winds-in terms of how [Powell] thinks about regulation and interest rates and certainly the progress being made so far on tax reform," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley FBR in Boston, told Reuters.

The latest US economic data underpinned reasons for optimism about the outlook. A Conference Board report showed its consumer confidence index climbed more than expected in November, rising to the highest level in almost 17 years.

Arby's bids for rival chain
Shares of Buffalo Wild Wings shares jumped 6.3% to $US155.63 after private equity firm Roark Capital Group, which owns Arby's and Cinnabon, agreed to buy the restaurant chain for about $US2.4 billion,

Roark agreed to pay $US157 a share in cash and will also take on Buffalo Wild Wings' net debt, the companies said in a statement.

Roark was likely to focus first on improving Buffalo Wild Wings's food and operations, which should be easy fixes for a firm that's experienced in the restaurant industry, according to Michael Halen, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

"The last three years there have been a disaster- – there's a lot of low-hanging fruit," he says.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended 0.6% lower. Germany's DAX Index rose 0.5%, France's CAC 40 Index increased 0.6% and the UK's FTSE 100 Index rallied 1.4%, its biggest one-day gain since July.

UK and EU negotiators reached a deal over the so-called Brexit bill, opening the door to a potential breakthrough in the talks this December, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Sources on both sides confirmed an agreement-in-principle had been reached over the EU's demand of a €60 billion financial settlement ahead of a crucial lunch meeting next Monday between UK Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the Telegraph added.

The report said two sources confirmed the terms were agreed at a meeting in Brussels late last week after intense back-channel discussions led by Oliver Robbins, the UK's chief Brexit negotiator.

(BusinessDesk)