Shares ended in records for a second day on Friday as investors assessed expectations of more economic stimulus following a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report.
A report in the Washington Post said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin was opposed to providing Americans with $ 2,000 stimulus controls, creating an obstacle to President-elect Joe’s push. Biden to drive stimulus measures.
Biden has promised that greater relief checks would be handed over to Americans if Democrats win the second Senate election in Georgia, which they did earlier this week.
Biden, in a televised speech Friday, said a weaker-than-expected U.S. job report showed the need for more economic stimulus “now.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56 points, 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 intraday record highs during Friday’s session.
During the week, Dow industrialists rose 1.6%, the S&P 500 added 1.8% and the Nasdaq Composite faced 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 individuals and businesses.
Recruitment slowed in December amid another rise in coronavirus infections. Economists surveyed by FactSet expected the United States to add 100,000 jobs in December, although many experts had predicted a contraction.
The December unemployment rate remained stable at 6.7%.
“In one line: bleak and unlikely to improve much before spring,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Shepherdson said the jobs report tells a “story consistent 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 occupations fell by 498,000 in December.
Boeing (BA) – Get the report shares fell 1.3 percent to $ 210 after the aircraft maker agreed to pay a $ 2.5 billion fine for fraud and conspiracy charges related to its 737 MAX aircraft program.
A new study suggested the vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) – Get the report and BioNTech (BNTX) – Get the report could offer protection against mutations found in new, rapidly spreading coronavirus variants that were discovered in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
The report, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas medical branch and with the support of Pfizer and BioNTech, found that vaccine receptor antibodies successfully defended the virus on lab plates. The study has not yet been reviewed by experts.
According to Johns Hopkins University, coronavirus deaths in the United States were 367,635. The United States on Thursday reported a daily record of more than 4,000 deaths.