Sprint Nextel jumps on Clearwire deal Clearwire shares dropped sharply in early trade on Monday after Sprint Nextel agreed to buy the remaining 49 per cent stake in the US telecoms business for $2.2bn. The deal, which was approved by the board of Clearwire as well as Japan's SoftBank, which in October agreed to buy a 70 per cent stake in Sprint for about $20bn, would allow smaller US telecoms to compete with AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Shares in Clearwire fell 12 per cent to $2.96, roughly the price Sprint agreed to pay for each share. Sprint shares added 4.4 per cent to $5.57. The rest of the markets started the trading session on a positive note on hopes that lawmakers in Washington will reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. Over the weekend, John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives offered to accept a tax rate hike for Americans earning more than $1m a year, a big concession in negotiations with President Barack Obama. In a weekly note, analysts from PNC Financial wrote that Europe's sovereign debt crisis and the approaching US fiscal cliff remain formidable headwinds to growth as we approach year end. Progress needs to be made on both fronts in order to support global equity markets and assure the global economic recovery continues uninterrupted. The benchmark S&P 500 index was 0.6 per cent higher at 1,422.89 with broad-based gains led by the financials sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 per cent to 13,203.62. Banking stocks enjoyed a fillip in the early morning trade. Citigroup shares rallied 2 per cent to $38.38, Wells Fargo rose 1.9 per cent to $33.75, while JPMorgan shares rose 1.1 per cent to $43.30. Technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5 per cent to 2,986.76. Apple shares fluctuated in early morning trade and were 0.3 per cent lower to $508.92 after the iPhones maker announced it sold 2m of its latest smartphones in China during the weekend sale. The stock, which suffered steep losses on Friday is trading at its lowest since February and has lost 27 per cent since its peak in September. Other big technology groups enjoyed solid gains, with Google rising 1.6 per cent to $713.44 and Microsoft adding 0.6 per cent to $26.96