The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500’s posted record close on Thursday, the last trading day of 2020, as a volatile year brutally disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic came to an end.
The Dow finished 196 points, or 0.65%, to 30,606.48, while the S&P 500 rose 0.64% to 3,756.07 and the Nasdaq rose 0.14% to 12,888.28.
Both the Dow and S&P also hit intraday highs.
For the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 7.2%. It ended 2019 at 28,538.44.
The S&P 500 rose 16.3% in 2020 to end 2019 at 3,230.78.
And the Nasdaq Composite was up 43.6% this year. It ended 2019 at 8,972.60.
On Wednesday, stocks had ended modestly higher and the Dow closed on a record high.
Initial jobless claims fell by 19,000 to 787,000 in the week ending Dec. 26, the Labor Department said the second consecutive drop.
Wall Street expected initial jobless claims to rise to 828,000. The previous week’s total was revised upwards by 3,000 to 806,000.
“Initial unemployment claims fell a bit, but at a level so high and with such large margins of error, they are essentially stuck at a painful, bloated level as a result of the increase in the coronavirus,” said Robert Frick, business economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. .
As long as that wave continues, Frick said, “we can expect that even with stimulus packages, more than 1 million Americans will lose their jobs every week, based on state and federal measures.”
On the political front, Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Senate minority leader, said Democrats would allow votes to curtail a liability shield for tech companies and create a committee to investigate the 2020 election if the GOP agreed to hold a separate meeting. cut on sending $ 2,000 checks to most Americans, CNBC reported.
President Donald Trump had asked Congress to address all three issues when he agreed to sign a $ 900 billion Covid-19 aid package, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has dismissed the $ 2,000 direct payments as ‘socialism for the rich’.
The number of confirmed worldwide deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, rose to nearly 1.81 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Cases of the virus around the world have risen to 83.1 million.
The death toll in the US is 343,030, the highest number in the world. The number of people confirmed to be infected in the US was 19.8 million.
According to data from the university, there were 201,555 new cases of coronavirus in the US on Wednesday and a record number of deaths of 3,725.
A highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that has spread across the UK was discovered in California a day after Colorado authorities confirmed the species was found in a man in his 20s.
Health officials in Colorado have also identified a second possible case of the new species. Experts have said that existing vaccines must be effective against the new strain.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) – Request report indicated in a regulatory file that it would likely record a fourth straight quarterly loss after writing off a whopping $ 20 billion on its upstream assets. Shares of the energy company closed nearly 1% at $ 41.01.
Jill Soltau, CEO of JC Penney, leaves the store. The new owners of the chain, who emerged from bankruptcy earlier this month, have started looking for a new leader.
Simon Property Group (SPG) – Request report and Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) – Request report, the two US shopping center owners who bought Penney in the fall, said they were looking for a leader “focused on modern retail, the consumer experience and the goal to create a sustainable and sustainable JC Penney”.
The stock exchange will close on January 1. US bond markets are closed at 2 p.m. on Thursday and no trading takes place on New Year’s Day.