Stocks higher as reports point to progress in U.S.-Mexico talks Stocks were mixed and searching for direction through the first half of the session, but they picked up momentum to the upside in the afternoon after Bloomberg reported that the U.S. is considering a delay on placing tariffs on imports from Mexico. Soon afterward, The Washington Post said that officials from the U.S. and Mexico are discussing the outlines of an agreement that would dramatically boost Mexico's immigration enforcement efforts, cementing the move higher. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims were unchanged at 218,000 in the week ended June 1. Q1 productivity growth was revised to 3.4%, down from the 3.6% pace previewed in the advance report but up from 1.3% in Q4. The April trade deficit was reported at $50.8B, which was close to expectations. In trade news, the Washington Post reported that officials from the U.S. and Mexico are discussing the outlines of an agreement that would dramatically boost Mexico's immigration enforcement efforts and provide the U.S. with more latitude to deport Central Americans seeking asylum as Mexico is facing potential escalating tariffs from the U.S. on Mexican goods starting Monday. TOP NEWS: Google announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Looker in a $2.6B all-cash transaction. Looker, a unified platform for business intelligence, data applications and embedded analytics, will join Google Cloud once the deal is closed, the Alphabet (GOOGL) unit said. Meanwhile, the search giant made a series of announcement during a livestream about its upcoming video game streaming service Stadia, saying that it will offer a $9.99-a-month pricing option as well as a Founder's Edition option, which includes a controller, Chromecast Ultra, and three months of Stadia for $129. The company also showed more games that will be available on the platform at launch, including Bungie's "Destiny 2," Ubisoft's (UBSFY) "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint," Warner Bros. (T) "Mortal Kombat 11," and Square Enix's "Final Fantasy XV." Shares of Tesla (TSLA) rose 4.8% after a report last night from an electric vehicle focused website claimed that the company was offering employees new bonuses in order to deliver all the vehicles it had recently sold in a "record" quarter. According to Electrek's Fred Lambert, Tesla executives held a call yesterday with sales and delivery managers to discuss the fact that the company had already delivered 33,000 vehicles in North America this quarter and that it was aiming to deliver another 33,000 vehicles in June. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Barnes & Noble (BKS), which surged 29.8% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is near a deal to be bought by Elliott Management, with a deal to take the bookseller private possibly being reached in the coming days. Financial Times added to that report, stating that Elliott is close to acquiring Barnes & Noble for $6.50 a share. Also higher were Ciena (CIEN) and Stitch Fix (SFIX), which gained a respective 26.8% and 14.7% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was Eros International (EROS), which plunged 49.2% after it provided clarification regarding a credit rating downgrade at its majority owned subsidiary, Eros International Media Limited. Also lower were At Home Group (HOME) and Cloudera (CLDR), which fell 57.2% and 40.9%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: The Dow rose 181.09, or 0.71%, to 25,720.66, the Nasdaq gained 40.08, or 0.53%, to 7,615.55, and the S&P 500 advanced 17.34, or 0.61%, to 2,843.49. Symbols: $GOOG $GOOGL $UBSFY $T $TSLA $BKS $CIEN $SFIX $EROS $HOME $CLDRSource: (thefly.com)