Nearly Over

By Alex Eule |  Wednesday, December 30 Penultimate Trade. The days of stimulus disappointment appear to be over for investors. Even with hope for $2,000 checks fading in a gridlocked Congress, stocks still marched higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 74 points, or 0.2%, to an all-time high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite edged up, good enough for their second-highest closes ever.  While $2,000 checks may not be happening, Americans have begun to receive the $600 checks from the Covid relief bill that became law over the weekend. In a twist on their usual tax collecting, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service confirmed those payments in a press release yesterday:  The initial direct deposit payments may begin arriving as early as tonight for some and will continue into next week.  Paper checks will begin to be mailed tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 30. ... This second round of payments will be distributed automatically, with no action required for eligible individuals.  There's not much good data on the Covid-19 case front -- hospitalizations hit another all-time high -- but the vaccine news continues to be positive. The U.K. approved the low-cost vaccine from AstraZeneca, which has said it could deliver 3 billion doses in 2021. While that could prevent the virus in nearly half the world's population, the vaccine has yet to be widely accepted in other parts of the world. Questions about the company's vaccine trial has delayed its acceptance in the U.S.  AstraZeneca has said it doesn't plan to profit off the vaccine initially. Its stock is flat on the year. (See also: Regeneron’s Antibodies Appear to Help Hospitalized Patients—and Could Help 2021 Revenue) It was a rare bad day for big tech. The market's five-largest stocks (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Google-parent Alphabet, and Facebook) all slipped on the day. Facebook and Alphabet led the losses, down 1.8% and 1.2%, respectively. It has been a tough month for the two internet-advertising giants, which are in the crosshairs of regulators. Facebook is down almost 2% over the last month while Google is down 1%, even as the Nasdaq is up nearly 6%. Apple has been the big-tech standout in December; its stock is up 12% this month. We'll wait until New Year's Eve to give you all the year-end stats, but here's a quick preview: With one day to go, the S&P 500 is up 15.5% on the year. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, has soared 43%. Even more impressive, the tech-heavy index is up 94% over the last two years. That’s still not good enough for a record, though. From 1998 to 1999, the Nasdaq was up 159%.

 

DJIA: +0.24% to 30,409.56 S&P 500: +0.13% to 3,732.04 Nasdaq: +0.15% to 12,870.00 The Hot Stock: Freeport-McMoRan +7.2% The Biggest Loser: AES -2.3% Best Sector: Energy +1.6% Worst Sector: Communication Services -0.7%