• US equity markets opened the holiday-shortened trading week with solid gains – Dow rose +307-points or +0.59% to 52,182.74, closing above 52,000 for the first time on record to mark its fourth 1,000-point milestone in 2026, according to Dow Jones Market Data. For comparison, the 30-stock index set three 1,000-point milestones in all of 2025. It took just 20 trading days for the index to move from its last milestone to 52,000, the shortest gap since the climb from 49,000 to 50,000 in February, when it took 22 trading days. Alphabet Inc rose +4.82% on its first day as member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), replacing Verizon Communications Inc as part of changes that S&P Dow Jones Indices to its marquee stock indexes last week. Alphabet is still tracking for its worst month since February of last year, logging weekly declines for six of the past seven weeks. It marks a sharp reversal from May, when the company briefly eclipsed Nvidia Corp (+1.27%) in after-hours trading to become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation. Caterpillar Inc (+3.58%) and Cisco Systems Inc (+3.45%) both rose ~3.5%.