US equity markets advanced on Friday (9 February), with a fresh march higher for mega-capitalisation technology stocks seeing the S&P 500 settling above the 5,000 for the first time - Dow eased -55-points or -0.14%. Chevron Corp fell -1.96% amid reports Venezuela had built up its military presence along its border with Guyana. Chevron last year announced a US$53B acquisition of Hess () in part to take ownership of Hess’s assets in the newly oil-rich country. Cisco Systems Inc added +0.36% after Reuters reported that the networking giant is planning thousands of job cuts as it restructures its business to focus more on high-growth markets. Intel Corp rose +1.91% after the White House said it would invest $5 billion in a new public-private consortium for the research and development of advanced semiconductors. International Business Machines (IBM) Corp rose +1.07% and Microsoft Corp +1.56%.