Stocks Opened Higher after U.S-Canada Nafta Deal

U.S. stocks opened solidly higher on Monday after the U.S. and Canada struck a deal to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 213.68 points, or 0.81%, to 26,671.99. the S&P 500 climbed 9.01 points, or 0.65%, to 2,932.99. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 52.92 points, or 0.66%, to 8,099.27.

Oil futures on Monday extended a persistent uptrend with global crude prices adding to recent gains above a four-year high and U.S. oil around a three-month peak. November West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 24 cents, or 0.3%, to $73.49 a barrel. December Brent crude rose 59 cents, or 0.6%, lto $83.22 a barrel.

Optimism about a reconstituted free trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico and what it could mean for trade relations elsewhere helped world markets kick off the fourth quarter of the year in a positive vein.

The United States and Canada salvaged NAFTA as a trilateral pact with Mexico, rescuing a $1.2 trillion open-trade zone that had been about to collapse after nearly a quarter century.

General Electric (GE) announced H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. will replace John Flannery as Chairman and CEO of the company, effective immediately. The company also named Thomas W. Horton as lead director, the company said in a statement Monday.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) surged Monday morning after the SEC settled a lawsuit accusing the company’s founder and CEO Elon Musk of defrauding investors when he tweeted last month that he was considering taking the company private. Musk and Tesla will each pay $20 million under the settlement, the SEC said in a statement Saturday.