Yahoo Finance Stock market news live updates: Stocks end at record highs after Trump signs virus relief package
Stocks jumped on Monday to reach record levels after President Donald Trump signed a virus relief package following a multi-day delay.
[Click here to read what’s moving markets heading into Tuesday, Dec. 29]
The Dow rose 0.7%, or about 200 points, while the S&P 500 rose about 0.9% and the Nasdaq added 0.7%. Each of the three major indices hit record intraday and closing highs, adding to their year-to-date gains in the final week of 2020.
Trump gave approval to Congress’s bipartisan $900 billion stimulus package Sunday evening after objecting to the bill earlier last week. In approving the stimulus package, Trump also signed Congress’s $1.4 trillion omnibus bill providing funds for the government through the end of the fiscal year, averting a government shutdown.
The virus relief package included a more modest $600 payment that fell short of Trump’s demand to cut $2,000 checks to most Americans. Trump also called for lawmakers to cut items he considered “wasteful and unnecessary” in the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to hold a roll call vote over a separate measure to increase the direct payments on Monday, after having failed to pass it through unanimous consent on Thursday. It is unclear whether or when the Republican-controlled Senate would take up the measure.
In its current form, the stimulus package includes a host of measures to support individual Americans and businesses struggling amid the ongoing pandemic, which as of Monday had sickened more than 19 million people in the U.S. The legislation includes approximately $325 billion in aid for small businesses and replenishes the Paycheck Protection Program, and extends federal unemployment benefit programs and offers an enhanced $300 per week in jobless insurance.
Still, the delay on signing the bill into law created a lapse in unemployment benefits for the about 14 million Americans claiming federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, as both of these programs expired on Saturday without the new stimulus measures to renew them. There is likely to be a brief delay in re-starting these programs under the new authorization, experts have said.
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4:01 p.m. ET: Stocks end at record highs after stimulus bill passage
Here’s where the three major indices ended the session on Monday:
S&P 500 (^GSPC): 3,735.36, up 32.3 points or 0.87%
Dow (^DJI): 30,403.97, up 204.1 points or 0.68%
Nasdaq (^IXIC): 12,899.42, up 94.69 points or 0.74%
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1:43 p.m. ET: Goldman raises Q1 GDP forecast to 5% after $900 billion stimulus package gets signed into law
Goldman Sachs economists on Monday upgraded their forecast for first-quarter gross domestic product growth to 5% from 3% annualized, citing the boost to consumer spending the $900 billion stimulus package will confer.
“While the income effects of the fiscal package will be very front-loaded, we expect the impact on consumer spending to be more evenly distributed throughout the year,” the economists led by Jan Hatzius said in a note. “The virus resurgence and continued state and local restrictions will likely weigh on spending in the short term, leading to more pent-up demand later in the year following mass vaccination.”
The economists also assume that full-year economic growth will be greater than in his previous assumption. The group sees annual growth of 5.8% in the U.S., up from 5.3% previously.
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12:16 p.m. ET: Stocks hold higher as stimulus optimism boosts markets
The three major indices held higher in intraday trading. Here were the main moves in markets, as of 12:16 p.m. ET:
S&P 500 (^GSPC): 3,734.27, up 31.21 points or 0.84%
Dow (^DJI): 30,413.74, up 213.87 points or 0.71%
Nasdaq (^IXIC): 12,908.96, up 104.22 points or 0.81%
Crude (CL=F): -$0.08 (-0.17%) to $48.15 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$0.20 (-0.01%) to $1,8783.00 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +2.1 bps to yield 0.951%
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10:55 a.m. ET: Alibaba shares steady after Beijing increases scrutiny of e-commerce giant, Ant Group
Shares of Alibaba (BABA) steadied intraday Monday after sliding earlier, after Chinese authorities began an antitrust probe of the company late last week.
Regulators over the weekend called for Alibaba affiliate Ant Group to “rectify” its business practices and focus more narrowly on its core digital payments business. This came about a month after Beijing scuttled Ant Group’s planned $34.5 billion initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Shares of Alibaba were up 0.2% in New York, after dropping more than 13% on Thursday.
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9:35 a.m. ET: Stocks reach fresh record levels after Trump signs stimulus bill
The three major indices each set fresh record intraday highs Monday morning just after market open, after President Donald Trump signed Congress’s virus relief bill into law following a delay.
The Dow added more than 150 points to reach as high as 30,384.54 Monday morning. Apple and Disney led gains in the 30-stock index. Meanwhile, the information technology and materials sectors outperformed in the S&P 500, which rose to its own intraday record of 3,731.38.
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7:15 a.m. ET Monday: Stock futures point to a higher open
Here were the main moves in markets, as of Monday morning:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,719.75, up 24.75 points or 0.67%
Dow futures (YM=F): 30,269.00, up 160 points or 0.53%
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 12,787.75, up 83.25 points or 0.66%
Crude (CL=F): +$0.48 (+1.00%) to $48.71 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$5.40 (-0.29%) to $1,877.80 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +2.5 bps to yield 0.955%
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