Shares closed at record highs on Friday, while investors assessed expectations for a higher economic stimulus following a lower-than-expected job ratio in the US.
A Washington Post report said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin opposed offering Americans $ 2,000 stimulus controls, creating an obstacle to pressure from President-elect Joe Biden to boost stimulus measures.
Biden promised that greater aid controls would be provided to Americans if Democrats won the Georgia Senate election, which they did earlier this week.
Biden, in a televised address on Friday, said that a lower-than-expected job ratio in the US showed the need for greater economic stimulus “now”.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 56 points, or 0.18%, to 31,097. The S&P 500 rose 0.55% to 3,824, and the Nasdaq gained 1.03% to 13,201.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also set record highs during the day during Friday’s session.
For the week, the Dow industry grew 1.6%, the S&P 500 added 1.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite reached 2.4%.
The United States lost 140,000 jobs in December, the first drop in employment since April, as Covid-19 cases increased and stricter restrictions were imposed on people and businesses.
Employment slowed in December amid another rise in coronavirus infections. Economists polled by FactSet expected the US to add 100,000 jobs in December, although many experts predicted a contraction.
The unemployment rate in December remained at 6.7%.
“In one line: gloomy and unlikely to improve long before spring,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Shepherdson said the job report tells a “story in line with the rise in Covid cases in recent months and the restrictions imposed on trying to contain the pandemic. He noted that leisure and hospitality jobs fell by 498,000 in December.
Boeing (nay) – Get the report shares fell 1.3 percent to $ 210 after the jet maker agreed to pay a $ 2.5 billion fine for fraud and conspiracy charges related to its 737 MAX aircraft program.
A new study has suggested the vaccine developed by Pfizer (FE) – Get the report and BioNTech (BNTX) – Get the report could provide protection against mutations found in new, rapidly spreading coronavirus variants that have been discovered in the UK and South Africa.
The report, conducted by researchers at the medical branch of the University of Texas and supported by Pfizer and BioNTech, found that antibodies from vaccine recipients successfully defended the virus in laboratory vessels. The study has not yet been reviewed by experts.
Coronavirus deaths in the United States were 367,635, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States reported a daily record of more than 4,000 deaths on Thursday.