S&P, NASDAQ CLOSE AT RECORD HIGHS ON BIDEN STIMULUS PLAN

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs on Thursday, January 21, 2021, propelled by optimism about more pandemic relief under the Biden administration to support the economy after data showed a tepid labor market recovery, Echo Wang reported for Reuters.

The Dow was also poised for a record until falling into negative territory in the final minutes of trading.

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits dipped to 900,000 last week but still remained stubbornly high as the COVID-19 pandemic tears through the nation, raising the risk that the economy will shed jobs for a second straight month in January.

But other data showed the housing and manufacturing sectors as areas of strength to help buttress the economy.

“We’ve had a very strong momentum going into this year and coming into the Biden administration... because of prospects of a bigger stimulus check and more spending in general,” said Mohannad Aama, managing director at Beam Capital Management LLC in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.37 points, or 0.04%, to 31,176.01, the S&P 500 gained 1.22 points, or 0.03%, to 3,853.07 and the Nasdaq Composite added 73.67 points, or 0.55%, to 13,530.92.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced, boosted by a jump in shares of megacap stocks such as Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc ahead of their earnings reports in the coming weeks.

It follows Netflix Inc’s blowout results on Wednesday that revitalized the “stay-at-home” beneficiaries, adding $262 billion in overall market capitalization to the FAANG group of stocks.

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