NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks resumed their holiday season rally yesterday, shrugging off the dimming chances of more United States stimulus being enacted while another coronavirus vaccine advanced.
The Dow edged to a fresh record, with analysts pointing to bargain-hunting after equities fell on Tuesday.
Britain became the first country in the world to approve AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s low-cost Covid-19 vaccine, another option to tame the deadly disease. The US has already cleared vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
But Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell threw more cold water on the prospect for raising stimulus payments to US$2,000 from the US$600 maximum included in the just-enacted US relief bill, criticising a measure backed by President Donald Trump in a speech on the Senate floor.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.2% at 30,409.56, narrowly overtaking an all-time high registered on Monday.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1% at 3,732.04, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.2% to 12,870.00.
“Investors are taking a breather,” said Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Advisers.
“We are running a bit out of gas after the big moves of the last quarter.”
Among individual companies, Intel fell 1.3% a day after activist investor Dan Loeb of Third Point sharply criticised the chipmaker and called for it to consider divestitures.
Shares of Intel had risen about 5% on Tuesday following reports of Loeb’s statement. – AFP, December 31, 2020
