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By Nicholas
Jasinski | Tuesday, December 22 Jingle
Bells. U.S. stocks had
a mixed day today, as a degree of calm returned to the stock market
following yesterday's chaotic start to the week. Things appear to be slowing
down ahead of the Christmas holiday on Friday. Markets will also close early on
Thursday. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 0.7% and the S&P
500 slipped 0.2%. The Nasdaq
Composite gained 0.5% and the small-cap Russell
2000 added
1% -- both to record highs. Congress
passed a $900 billion fiscal stimulus package last night after months of
wrangling and negotiating between Republicans and Democrats. Investors had
increasingly hung their hats on a deal getting done during the lame-duck
session, so the news didn’t come as a surprise to the market. Still, the
stimulus is likely to provide a meaningful boost to the economy, and possibly
help avoid a double-dip recession during the current record wave of Covid-19
outbreaks. The bill is worth some 4.3% of U.S. nominal GDP. The Conference
Board released the results of its latest consumer
confidence survey this morning.
The monthly measure of public confidence in the health of the U.S. economy
unexpectedly declined in December, to 88.6, down from a revised 92.9 in
November. Economists had been expecting a reading of 97. The December
confidence figure is just 3 points above the April low. Covid-19 outbreaks
and associated stay-at-home orders and other restrictions appear to be making
a dent. “My view is
that consumer spending has cooled more due to a lack of opportunity to spend
than to deep-seated pessimism,” Amherst
Pierpont chief economist Stephen
Stanley wrote today.
“Indeed, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel in the form of
vaccines, but people are likely laying low a bit in November and December due
to the surge in the virus and resulting restrictions on activity.” Stanley
expects consumer spending to resume its upward trend within a few months as
vaccines are distributed more widely. The just-passed stimulus bill
includes $286 billion going to households via stimulus checks and
enhanced unemployment benefits. That probably won't hurt consumers' moods
either. |
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DJIA: -0.67% to 30,015.51 The Hot
Stock: Paycom
Software +4.4% Best Sector:
Technology +0.9% |
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