Trump builds a wall; Investors cheer; Earnings galore

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1. Trump builds his wall: President Trump is expected to sign an executive action Wednesday directing federal resources toward building a border wall with Mexico.

In a late-night post Tuesday on Twitter, he wrote: "Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!"

Shares in cement companies rallied Tuesday in anticipation of the announcement, expected during a visit to the Department of Homeland Security at 1:25 p.m. ET.

Mexico-based cement firm Cemex (CX) stock surged by 4%.

Trump on Tuesday signed executive actions to advance the approval of two controversial oil pipelines -- Dakota Access and Keystone XL. His decision reverses efforts by former President Obama to block their construction.

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2. Investors cheer: Global stock markets are rallying right now and U.S. stock futures are pushing up. Investors are still feeling positive about Trump's pro-business agenda.

European markets are rising in early trading, with many indexes up by about 1%. Most Asian markets ended the day with gains.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both hit record highs on Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.6%. It's now less than 100 points away from the much-hyped 20,000 level.

The financial and materials sectors performed particularly well on Tuesday.

"This is significant, as both materials and financial stocks have been sensitive to market expectations around the Trump administration's ability to deliver growth," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at City Index.

3. Earnings galore: Boeing (BA), United Technologies (UTX) and Progressive (PGR) are releasing earnings before the open Wednesday.

Then AT&T (T), eBay (EBAY) and Qualcomm (QCOM) will release earnings after the close.

AT&T investors will be listening for news on its takeover of CNN's parent company, Time Warner (TWX). Trump -- who previously said he was opposed to the deal -- recently met with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, although the takeover did not come up in their talks.

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4. Cisco takeover: Cisco (CSCO) is in the spotlight after the firm said it's taking over AppDynamics, a private company, for approximately $3.7 billion.

Shares in Cisco are expected to rise a bit at the open.

5. Coming this week:

Wednesday - Boeing (BA) and AT&T (T) earnings
Thursday - Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Ford (F), and Starbucks (SBUX) earnings
Friday - First reading of fourth-quarter U.S. GDP