Shares ended at an all-time high on a second day Friday, as investors assessed expectations for more economic stimulus after a weaker-than-expected US jobs report.
A report in the Washington Post said Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed providing US $ 2,000 stimulus vouchers, hindering President-elect Joe Biden’s attempt to boost stimulus measures.
Biden has vowed that Americans would receive greater emergency checks if Democrats won Senate elections in Georgia, which they did earlier this week.
Biden said in a televised address Friday that a weaker-than-expected US jobs report showed that more economic stimulus measures are needed “now”.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 56 points, or 0.18%, to 31,097. The S&P 500 rose 0.55% to 3,824, and the Nasdaq rose 1.03% to 13,201.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also hit record highs during the day during Friday’s session.
For the week, the Dow industrials were up 1.6%, the S&P 500 at 1.8% and the Nasdaq Composite at 2.4%.
The US lost 140,000 jobs in December, the first drop in employment since April, as Covid-19 cases soared and stricter restrictions on people and businesses.
The number of hires slowed in December due to a new wave of coronavirus infections. Economists polled by FactSet expected the US to add 100,000 jobs by December, although many experts had predicted a contraction.
The unemployment rate remained stable at 6.7% in December.
“In one sentence, grim and unlikely to get much better before spring,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Shepherdson said the job report “tells a story consistent with the rise in Covid cases in recent months, and the restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic.” He noted that recreation and hospitality jobs fell 498,000 in December.
Boeing (BA) – Request report Shares fell 1.3% to $ 210 after the jet maker agreed to pay a $ 2.5 billion fine for fraud and conspiracy charges related to its 737 MAX jet program.
A new study suggested the vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE) – Request report and BioNTech (BNTX) – Request report protect against mutations found in new, fast-spreading variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa.
The report, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch and supported by Pfizer and BioNTech, found that antibodies from vaccine recipients successfully fend off the virus in lab dishes. The study has not yet been reviewed by experts.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there were 367,635 deaths in the US from the coronavirus. The US reported a daily record of more than 4,000 deaths on Thursday.