Wall Street snaps 4-day skid
Hopes for congressional aid package boosts small-company stocks index to record high
Stocks notched broad gains on Wall Street Tuesday as renewed optimism that Washington will deliver more aid to the struggling economy put investors in a buying mood.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.3 percent, snapping a four-day losing streak. Technology companies powered much of the rally, which helped push the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite to an all-time high. An index of small-company stocks also set a record high. Treasury yields rose.
Negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on another round of coronavirus relief have been dragging on for weeks. Fresh signs of cooperation Tuesday appeared to boost the market’s confidence that Washington can get past its partisan divide and hammer out a deal. A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a detailed proposal. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held another round of talks.
“The most important thing is this idea of a fiscal stimulus package actually seeing some positive chance of being approved,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments.
Also helping to steady the market were hopes for an improving economy next year as COVID -19 vaccines become widely distributed. A vaccine candidate developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health may be on the cusp of regulatory approval after the Food and Drug Adminis
tration said its preliminary analysis confirmed its safety and effectiveness. It would join the nation’s first vaccine, which just began rolling out. Hundreds of hospital and health care facilities will get their first shipments Tuesday of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Biontech.
The S&P 500 rose 47.13 points to 3,694.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 337.76 points, or 1.1 percent, to 30,199.31. The Nasdaq climbed 155.02 points, or 1.3 percent, to 12,595.06.
That eclipsed the index’s last all-time high set a week ago.
About 90 percent of the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 notched gains, led by technology, financial and health care stocks.
Small-company stocks did especially well, a sign that investors are feeling more optimistic about prospects for the economy. The Russell 2000 index picked up 45.91 points, or 2.4 percent, to 1,959.76, a record high.
The Russell 2000 trailed the broader market for most of this year as investors bet that larger companies, especially Big Tech stocks, would be better suited to weather the economic fallout from the pandemic. Now it’s up 17.5 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 is up 13.4 percent.
“Nobody wanted to reverse that trade until you started to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that happened when we started getting some real vaccine news that was positive,” Martin said.
Another big gain for Apple also helped to lift Wall Street. It’s the most influential stock in the S&P 500 because of the company’s massive market value, and it rose 5 percent after a report from Japan’s Nikkei said it may produce more iphones in the first half of 2021 than analysts had been expecting.
Much of the market’s focus remains on Washington, though, where a deep partisan divide has kept Congress from delivering another dose of financial support for the economy. Economists and investors have been clamoring for more aid for jobless workers and hard-hit industries, among other things, particularly as surging coronavirus counts pummel the economy again.
The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits is back on the rise, as governments around the country and world bring back varying degrees of restrictions on businesses. Even without lockdown orders, the fear is that the rising number of deaths will keep customers away from businesses.
Another round of financial support from Washington could help carry the economy through what’s expected to be a bleak winter, before vaccines help things get closer to normal next year.
Worries about the worsening pandemic and stopand-start talks in Washington about support for the economy have made the market shaky in recent weeks. It earlier surged through November on hopes for coming CO
VID -19 vaccines and relief that the U.S. presidential election ended with a clear winner, Democrat Joe Biden. The electoral college confirmed Biden’s victory on Monday.
Still, the S&P 500 remains near its record set a week ago. Massive efforts by the Federal Reserve have provided another huge underpinning, and the central bank begins its last policy meeting of the year on Tuesday. It will announce its decision on Wednesday after already cutting short-term interest rates to nearly zero and indicating it will keep them there for a while even if inflation rises above its target of 2 percent.
THE EXPANSE
Amazon Prime Video Season premiere! the 10episode fifth season of the sci-fi hit set in a colonized solar system picks up as multitudes of humans leave the system in search of new homes and vast fortunes on the Earth-like worlds beyond the alien Ring, and as a heavy price for centuries of exploitation of the Belt finally comes due, a reckoning is at hand. For the crew of the Rocinante and the leaders of the Inner Planets and the Belt, the past and present converge, bringing forth personal challenges that have wide-reaching repercussions throughout the solar system.
GENERAL HOSPITAL
ABC, 2 p.m. Jason (Steve Burton) reaches out to Brick (Stephen A. Smith). Julian (William devry) is desperate to get out of town. Laura (Genie Francis) jeopardizes her well-being. Ava (Maura West) reaches out to Trina (Sydney Mikayla). Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) corners Nikolas (Marcus Coloma).
THE GREAT CHRISTMAS LIGHT FIGHT
ABC, 8 p.m. In the first of two back-to-back episodes, four families across America face off in the most intense Heavyweights episode yet with the Storybook Land team brimming with nostalgia and a million lights; the Luminaria team’s sprawling 55-acre botanical garden gets blanketed with thousands of high-tech luminarias, creating one of the largest pixel fields in the world; Folepi’s Winter Wonderland creates an awe-inspiring parade of a million lights; and the World of Illumination creates an all-inclusive display, featuring over a million lights. In the second episode, the Mattos family displays a vibrant, fully custom light show in their apricot orchard, incorporating original music and homemade yet high tech digital artwork, plus flying reindeers; the Martel family decks out their front and back yards with shimmering lights, a high speed Ferris wheel, an avenue of little houses with hidden elf scenes and more; the Irizarry-serrano family displays a mystical “City of Lights” with breathtaking DIY elements, from a handmade North Pole cave to a dazzling JOY sign centerpiece; and the Doody family transforms their home into the Vegas strip, featuring a custom Las Vegas sign, a massive fountain and a light show brighter than anything you’ll find on the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada.
THE AMAZING RACE
CBS, 8 p.m. Season finale! the winners meet host Phil Keoghan at the finish line in the Season 32 finale episode “Now It’s About Winning.”
DEVILS: “EPISODE 10”
The CW, 8 p.m. Season finale! using the dossier, Massimo (Alessandro Borghi) finally stops Dominic (Patrick Dempsey), and he also finds out who the killer is. While Dominic is sent back to the U.S., Massimo accepts the CEO position. Sofia (Laia Costa), disgusted by Massimo’s choice and learning of his involvement in her brother’s death, vows to destroy him by revealing the scandal behind the dossier — a decision that will cause terrible consequences for her and Massimo.
THE MASKED SINGER
FOX, 8 p.m. Season finale! season 4 of The Masked Singer concludes with the unmasking of the winning performer in this two-hour finale. Nick Cannon hosts with panelists Jenny Mccarthy, Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke.
TCM SPOTLIGHT: BERNARD HERRMANN: “HERRMANN & HITCHCOCK”
TCM, beginning at 8 p.m. Catch a classic! some film directors and composers have creatively gelled so memorably that they became frequent collaborators and sometimes remain legendary pairings. That was the case with Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, who teamed on seven films from the mid ’50s to early ’60s. You can enjoy six of those titles in tonight’s lineup, which features “Vertigo” (1958), with Herrmann’s appropriately swirling music; “Marnie” (1964), the last film Herrmann made with Hitch; “The Trouble With Harry” (1955), Herrmann’s first score for the director; “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956); “The Wrong Man” (1956); and “North by Northwest” (1959).
SISTAS: “THE HOT STOVE”
BET, 9 p.m. Gary (Chido Nwokocha) forces a conversation with Andi (KJ Smith), but later he gets drunk and his anger boils over. Meanwhile, Zac (Devale Ellis) is pursued by a new love interest.
EXPEDITION X
Discovery Channel, 9 p.m. It’s America’s Loch Ness Monster! Paranormal investigator Jessica Chobot and scientist Phil Torres pursue “Champ,” the serpent-like beast rumored to live in Lake Champlain. They explore the murky water and adjacent marsh for proof the creature (estimated in the 20- to 200feet range) exists.
TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER: “STEROIDS”
Nat Geo, 9 p.m. In the age of social media, the demand for illegal steroids is booming. In this episode, journalist Mariana van Zeller searches out producers and users in an attempt to understand the vanity, insecurity and greed that’s driving this dangerously unregulated, billion-dollar black market in body-enhancing drugs.
A SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
NBC, 9 p.m. If this year’s compilation of sketches from Christmas Episodes Past doesn’t include the howlingly perfect “Holiday Baking Championship” bit from Eddie Murphy’s 2019 return, Santa and his li’l elves are gonna be on our naughty list.
FOR LIFE: “COLLARS FOR DOLLARS”
ABC, 10 p.m. Newly liberated Aaron Wallace (Nicholas Pinnock) continues to use his time out of prison to fight for justice. The attorney and mentor Henry Roswell (Timothy Busfield) discover their new case — a woman facing deportation — reveals a pattern of police corruption.
S.W.A.T.: “HOPELESS SINNERS”
CBS, 10 p.m. In the new episode “Hopeless Sinners,” Chris (Lina Esco) brings SWAT into her personal mission to save a teenage girl from a charismatic, predatory religious leader (Sean Patrick Thomas) using his church for illicit gain.
THE CRIMES THAT CHANGED US: “THE NANNY TRIAL”
Investigation Discovery, 10 p.m. Louise Woodward is an 18year-old au pair from Britain hired by Deborah and Sunil Eappen to care for their two young sons. When 8-monthold Matthew becomes ill on her watch and later dies in the hospital, Louise is accused of murder. Her trial creates a media firestorm as medical experts battle it out on the witness stand. Jurors must decide whether they agree with the prosecution that Louise violently shook and hit Matthew to death, or the defense, who argue that the evidence proves his injuries occurred weeks earlier. Following the trial, the term “shaken baby syndrome” is seared into America’s consciousness.
TRUE PARANORMAL: FACT OR FAKED: “CREATURES IN THE NIGHT AND RED LIGHT”
Travel Channel, 10 p.m. Ben’s team investigates a video from the U.K. of an unidentified black animal filmed running across a field. Bill leads his team to El Cajon, California, to debunk a video of a triangular red light formation in the night.