Stimulus hopes boost Wall Street trading
Stocks rose for the second day in a row Thursday, ref lecting hope on Wall Street that Washington can approve more aid for the economy and encouragement from a report that suggests the pace of layoffs is slowing a bit, even though it remains incredibly high.
The S& P 500 climbed 0.8%, adding to its solid gains from a day earlier, when President Donald Trump apparently backtracked on his decision to halt talks on more aid for the economy. He said in a televised interview Thursdaymorning that “veryproductive” talks have begun on stimulus.
Stocks have been particularly rocky since early September, swerving on worries about everything from too- expensive prices to the still-raging pandemic, but the S&P 500 has been generally climbing the last two weeks and is on pace for its best week since August.
Resurgent optimism about thepossibility that the Democrats and Republicans will deliver another economic aid package has kept investors in a buyingmood the past couple of days.
“The markets hope that bothsides have sort of given their opening bids and now they can meet somewhere in the middle and do so fairly quickly,” said J. J. Kinahan, chief strategist with TD Ameritrade.
The S&P 500 index rose 27.38points to 3,446.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 122.05 points, or 0.4%, to 28,425.51. The Nasdaq composite picked up 56.38 points, or 0.5%, to 11,420.98.
Small company stocks fared better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index of small- cap stocks climbed 17.51 points, or 1.1%, to 1,628.55. Global stock indexes also closed higher.
Banks, technology and communication companies accounted for much of the broad gains. Energy stocks notched the biggest gain as the price of U.S. crude oil climbed more than 3%. Occidental Petroleumclimbed 8.8%, the biggest gainer in the S&P 500.
A government report showed that 840,000 workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. That’s down slightly from 849,000 the prior week, though it’s still remarkably high compared with history. It also was slightly worse than economists were expecting, 837,000.
“The important thing was we continue to see less people filing,” Kinahan said.
Still, several areas of the economy have been slowing recently after supplemental weekly unemployment benefits and other stimulus for the economy approved by Congress earlier this year expired. That has investors focused on whether Congress can deliver more aid. So far, bitter partisanship oncapitolhillhas beenpreventing a deal.
“The market is vulnerable to the gyrations of the political back- and- forth over a relief package,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.
The market has been swooping up and down this week in particular. On Tuesday, Trump said that he told his representatives to halt negotiations until after the election because he said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was negotiating in bad faith. That caused stocks to suddenly swing from a 0.7% gain to a 1.4% drop.
But just a fewhours later, Trump said that he would be open to several targeted programs, including aid for the airline industry specifically and $1,200 in payments to Americans.