US stocks are meandering in the closing hour of Christmas Eve trading

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On the last trading day of Christmas week on Thursday, US stock prices lacked direction as activity remained subdued due to the holiday Friday

On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will end trading at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recommends a 2:00 p.m. close for bond trading. The markets are closed on Fridays due to Christmas.

How do stock benchmarks perform?

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
    + 0.03%
    was up a single point around 30,131.

  • The S&P 500 index SPX,
    + 0.12%
    increased 2 points to 3,691, an increase of less than 0.1%.

  • The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
    + 0.09%
    was flat at 12,771.

On Wednesday, the small-cap-focused Russell 2000 index posted its 13th record close of 2020, while most other power meters posted modest gains.

  • The Russell 2000 index RUT,
    -0.34%
    closed 17.22 points, or 0.9%, and finished at a record of 2007.10.

  • The Dow closed 114.32 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 30,129.83.

  • The S&P 500 index ended up 2.75 points, or 0.1%, higher to close at 3,690.01, a three-session slide.

  • The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 36.80 points, or 0.3%, to close at 12,771.11.

What drives the market?

Markets remain fixated on the completion of the coronavirus aid package and government funding legislation passed by Congress on Monday after President Donald Trump expressed his unfortunate plight.

On Wednesday, Trump, who has asked lawmakers to increase direct payments to qualified persons from $ 600 to $ 2,000, also vetoed a $ 740.5 billion defense policy.

On Thursday morning, Republicans in the House defied the president and blocked a Democratic bill that would have sent $ 2,000 checks to individuals as part of the coronavirus financial aid package.

Thursday trading also kicks off a period in US stocks known as the Santa Claus rally, which has historically been good for stocks, averaging 1.3% gains over the period, according to research by Ryan Detrick of LPL Financial.

However, the market remains haunted by concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, despite a rollout of vaccines. A spike in deaths and hospitalizations from COVID has taken the shine off reaching what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called an “early but important” milestone of more than 1 million people vaccinated.

According to data from the New York Times, daily new cases of Covid-19 in the US jumped from 201,674 on Tuesday to 227,522 on Wednesday. The death toll rose from 3,239 to 3,411, on the occasion of the second worst day since the start of the pandemic. According to the COVID Tracking Project, the number of hospital admissions grew by 1,702 on Wednesday to a record 119,463.

Meanwhile, UK and EU officials announced a Brexit trade deal on Thursday after months of lengthy negotiations and an end to years of uncertainty over how a post-Brexit relationship between the two sides could take shape. The agreement now needs to be ratified by the UK and the European parliaments.

Investors say the deal will not be a major catalyst for US markets, but it will remove a headwind for investors amid a plethora of viruses and non-virus concerns.

Read: UK ETFs jump up when Brexit deal closes

“Investors continue to seek confirmation that a US spending / COVID tax support deal and a UK-EU trade deal could be finalized by the end of the year,” Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management, wrote in a statement. Thursday investigation. Note.

Those political feuds come as the UK announced that COVID lockdown measures were tightening, with a number of regions entering the toughest level of Tier 4 restrictions on Saturday as the country battles for a variant of the virus Covid-19 causes to limit, which is said to be more transferable.

Which stocks have the focus?

Shares of e-commerce giant Alibaba group
BABA,
-15.52%
were in focus amid reports that Chinese regulators are conducting an anti-monopoly investigation on Thursday. US-listed stocks fell 14.5% during the action on Thursday.

Shares of From Cloudera Inc.
CLDR,
-0.23%
may be in the picture after the company said late on Wednesday that it had bought everything back Intel Corp..’s INTC,
+ 0.70%
stake in the company for $ 314 million. Cloudera’s share fell 0.3%, while Intel was up 0.5%.

Shares of software vendor SolarWinds Corp.
SWI,
-1.44%
said Thursday it has released updates in response to the “SUPERNOVA” malware used to hack into US government computer systems. Its shares fell 1.8%.

How are other assets traded?

  • In Asian trade, the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP,
    -0.57%
    closed 0.6% lower on Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK,
    + 0.54%
    index rose 0.5%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index HSI,
    + 0.16%
    closed 0.2%.

  • In Europe, the Stoxx 600 is Europe SXXP,
    + 0.12%
    and the London FTSE 100 index UKX,
    + 0.10%
    both were up 0.1%.

  • The 10-year Treasury earns TMUBMUSD10Y,
    0.942%
    Dropped 2 basis points to about 0.94%. Revenues and prices move in opposite directions.

  • Oil futures declined, with the US benchmark CL.1,
    -0.27%
    traded 12 cents, or 0.3%, at $ 48.00 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with the contract threatening to halt the series of seven consecutive weekly increases.

  • Gold futures for February delivery GC00,
    + 0.21%
    rose 0.2% to $ 1,882.60 / oz.

  • A measure of the US dollar, the ICE US Dollar Index DXY,
    -0.08%,
    decreased 0.1%.

.Source