THE S&P 500 ended higher at the close of a shortened session on Thursday as investors headed into the long Christmas weekend with hopes that an imminent stimulus agreement, a Brexit deal, and the ongoing vaccine rollout will spell brighter days in the coming year.
All three major US stock indexes ended in positive territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 70.04 points or 0.23% to 30,199.87, the S&P 500 gained 13.05 points or 0.35% to 3,703.06 and the Nasdaq Composite added 33.62 points or 0.26% to 12,804.73.
Ten Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 posted gains, led by real estate. Energy was the lone loser.
For the holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 edged lower, the Dow eked out a nominal gain and the Nasdaq advanced.
While stocks tend to perform well in the closing days of December – a phenomenon known as the Santa Claus rally – the resurgent pandemic and upcoming Senate runoffs in Georgia have clouded the outlook this year.
The US House of Representatives blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to change a US$2.3 tril coronavirus relief and government spending package after Trump insisted on US$2,000 direct payments to Americans.
The move cast doubt as to whether the package passed by Congress on Monday would be signed into law and raised the threat of a partial government shutdown.
“If (stimulus) doesn’t get passed in some form or another it could mean severe consequences for the unemployed,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
Britain reached a trade deal with the European Union after months of negotiations, just days before leaving one of the world’s largest trading blocs.
“(The Brexit deal) might be acting as a buffer for the market in the sense that it’s counteracting the negativity of the stimulus bill being stalled,” Cardillo added.
More than one million Americans have now been vaccinated against COVID-19 even as the pandemic continues to rage in the US and political leaders moved to guard against a more contagious variant of the disease sweeping across Britain.
Shares of Alibaba Group dropped 13.3% on news that China had launched an investigation into the company as part of its antitrust crackdown.
Moderna Inc said that it expects its coronavirus vaccine to be effective against a new variant of the disease discovered in Britain. Even so, its shares closed down 5.3%.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.53-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 138 new highs and five new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 6.14 billion shares compared with the 11.30 billion average over the last 20 trading days. – Dec 25, 2020
