WALL STREET ENDS HIGHER IN HOPES OF NEW STIMULUS

Wall Street scaled new highs on Friday as hopes of more stimulus from Washington were shaken a bit by a senator’s comments but later bolstered after US President-elect Joe Biden said his economic package will be in the trillions of dollars, Herbert Lash reported for Reuters.

The latest rally in the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq overcame labor market data early in the day that showed the U.S. economy shed jobs for the first time in eight months in December as the country buckled under the COVID-19 onslaught.

But late in the session, the S&P retreated slightly from a its most recent peak following a report that Democratic US Senator Joe Manchin opposed bigger direct checks before addressing the coronavirus pandemic. The remarks unsettled investor who expect further stimulus payments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56.84 points, or 0.18%, to 31,097.97. The S&P 500 gained 20.89 points, or 0.55%, to 3,824.68 and the Nasdaq Composite added 134.50 points, or 1.03%, to 13,201.98.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 14.40 billion shares.

The S&P 500 closed above 3,800 points for the first time on Thursday, while the Dow and the Nasdaq posted their fourth straight weekly gains.

For the week, the S&P rose 1.83%, the Dow added 1.61% and the Nasdaq gained 2.43.%

Electric car-maker Tesla Inc jumped 7.8%, taking its market capitalization to more than $800 billion for the first time ever. Tesla was the largest percentage gainer on the S&P. US-listed shares of Baidu gained 15.6% on plans to form a company to make smart electric vehicles, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Baidu was the largest gainer on the Nasdaq 100. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.10-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.07-to-1 ratio favored advancers. S&P 500 posted 84 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 309 new highs and five new lows.

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