Wall Street was on track Monday to begin the final, holiday-shortened week of 2020 on a positive note after President Donald Trump ended a standoff with Congress over legislation that will send aid to consumers and small businesses.
What are major indexes doing?
- Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, +0.51% rose 165 points, or 0.6%, to 30,274.
- S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.71% were up 26.25 points, or 0.7%, to 3,721.25.
- Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, +0.85% gained 86.50 points, or 0.7%, to 12,791.
Stocks put in a mixed performance in holiday-shortened trading last week, with markets closed Friday for Christmas Day after an early finish on Thursday. The Dow DJIA, +0.23% eked out a rise of 0.1%, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.35% gave up 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.26% rose 0.4%. Major indexes ended Thursday not far below all-time highs.
What’s driving the market?
Trump’s decision late Sunday to sign the aid package came as a relief to investors who had been blindsided by Trump’s demands late last week that lawmakers raise checks to households to $2,000 from $600. Trump was pressured by lawmakers from both parties, who had negotiated the legislation, which passed both the House and Senate by wide margins, with the administration.
The package also includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September, averting a government shutdown.
“We can finally breathe a big sigh of relief and say that chaos over the stimulus bill is over,” said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM, in a note.
“A selloff has been averted and this could provide one last boost to risk assets in the last four trading days of the year,” he said. “However, investors shouldn’t get overexcited as most of it is probably already priced in.”
Trading is expected to remain thin as investors close out 2020. Markets will be shut Friday for the New Year’s Day holiday.
Bulls expect stocks to get a seasonal lift from a “Santa Claus rally,” referring to a phenomenon that runs the last week of December and the first two trading days of January.
Read: ‘Santa Claus’ rally has begun. Why few 7-session stretches are better for the stock market
Which stocks are in focus?
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. 9988, -7.98% boosted its stock repurchase program late Sunday from $6 billion to $10 billion, but shares remained under pressure in Hong Kong trading amid an antitrust investigation by Chinese regulators. The company’s U.S.-listed shares BABA, -13.34% slumped 13% on Thursday in reaction to the antitrust scrutiny.
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