US equity markets opened August on a positive footing, buoyed by solid manufacturing data and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity - Dow up +236-points or +0.89% The broader S&P500 gained +0.72% to 3,294.61, with Information Technology (up +2.49%) again the clear outperformer and leading five of the eleven primary sectors higher. Real Estate (down -1.47%) was the worst performing sector. The S&P 500 also ended the session less than 3% below the intraday record (3,393.52) set on 19 February. The technology-centric NASDAQ rallied +1.47% to a fresh record closing high of 10,902.80 and touching a fresh record intra-day peak of 10,905.40. Microsoft Corp jumped +5.62% (adding +71-points to the Dow) after it said it would push ahead with talks to buy the U.S. operations of Chinese-owned TikTok. President Trump reversed course earlier on a planned ban of the short-video app, instead saying that any sale to a US company must be completed by 15 September or the app will be banned. President Trump also suggested the company should pay the U.S. Treasury as part of the deal. Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date is the 2016 acquisition of business social network LinkedIn for US$27B. Investors of the privately owned ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, valued TikTok at US$50B, Reuters reported last week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the weekend said that the White House may take action against other Chinese software companies. Netflix Inc rose +1.99%, while Amazon.com Inc bucked the stronger trend with a -1.67% decline. The small-capitalisation Russell 2000 index gained +1.8%.