The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite on Friday closed with modest declines as uncertainty over fresh economic stimulus dented confidence, although strong gains from Walt Disney Co helped the Dow Industrials eke out a gain.
The US Senate, facing a midnight deadline on Friday, unanimously approved a one-week extension of federal funding to avoid a government shutdown, and to provide more time for separate negotiations on COVID-19 relief and an overarching spending bill.
US lawmakers have wrangled for months over a fresh fiscal stimulus package to support an economy battered by coronavirus lockdowns.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday suspended indoor dining in New York City, effective tomorrow.
“It’s like holiday shopping — you think you’ve got time and the next thing you know it’s the day before the holiday and you’ve got to hammer it out and get it done,” said Tom Hainlin, global investment strategist at US Bank Wealth Management’s Ascent Private Wealth Group in Minneapolis.
“The base case is that they are going to get it done, the base case is we are going to get some stimulus package put through and because we have some of the forbearance things falling off at the end of the year, there is a shot clock on these,” he said.
While data have shown a faltering recovery in the labor market, a survey from the University of Michigan on Friday showed that consumer sentiment improved more than expected last month, while a gauge of inflation rose moderately.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 47.11 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 30,046.37, the S&P 500 lost 4.64 points, or 0.13 percent, to 3,663.46 and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 27.94 points, or 0.23 percent, to 12,377.87.
For the week, the Dow lost 0.57 percent, the S&P 500 shed 0.96 percent and the NASDAQ lost 0.69 percent.
The S&P and NASDAQ had their biggest weekly declines since the end of October.
Walt Disney shares were the biggest boost to the Dow and S&P 500, surging 13.59 percent after the media company announced a heavy slate of new shows for its Disney+ streaming service and said it expects as many as 350 million global subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024.
With daily COVID-19 death tolls at alarming levels, fresh business restrictions in many US states and increasing layoffs, investors are counting on more fiscal relief to sustain a nascent economic recovery as most government aid has dried up.
Another 2,902 US deaths were reported on Thursday, a day after a record 3,253 people died, a pace projected to continue for the next two to three months even with a rapid deployment of inoculations.
However, conflicting headlines on progress toward a stimulus deal have kept investors cautious, even as optimism over a working vaccine pushed Wall Street’s main indices to record highs this week.
The Dow and S&P each snapped two-week winning streaks, while the NASDAQ broke a three-week streak of gains.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday raised the possibility of stimulus negotiations dragging on through Christmas.
Qualcomm Inc on Friday slumped 7.36 percent and was among the top decliners on the benchmark S&P 500, following a Bloomberg News report that Apple Inc has started building its own cellular modem for upcoming devices, a move that would replace components from the chipmaker.
Volume on US exchanges was 9.92 billion shares, compared with the 11.48 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.42-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 1.47-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 169 new highs and 14 new lows.
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