Stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as investors continued to bet on coming additional stimulus against the ever evolving pandemic. However, Congress's $900 billion stimulus package may be stalled ahead of the new year as President Donald Trump suggested that he may veto the bill in a video statement posted on Twitter (TWTR ) late Tuesday. Trump called for Congress to get rid of the "wasteful and unnecessary items" attached to the bill and for to increase direct payments to Americans from $600 to $2,000.
Meanwhile, fresh U.S. economic data came in mixed, with some reports signalling a stalling recovery.
New home sales declined 11% in November to a seasonally adjusted rate of 841,000, according to the Commerce Department, following a 2.1% drop in October. This is the category's largest decrease since March.
Personal income fell 1.1% in November after declining 0.6% in October, according to the Commerce Department, marking its steepest fall since August after the CARES Act weekly enhanced unemployment benefits expired. Personal spended dropped 0.4%, while personal savings rate fell 12.9%.
New weekly jobless claims, however, decreased at a more-than-expected rate last week, totalling 803,000 in the Labor Department's fresh unemployment report. Last week's total fell below the upwardly revised 892,000 recorded the previous week. Continuing jobless claims for the week of Dec.12 also declined at a more than anticipated rate, dropping to 5.337 million from the 5.507 million recorded the week prior.
Here's how the market closed on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY ): +0.07% or +2.76 points to 3,690.02
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA ): +0.38% or +114.32 points to 30,129.83
Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ ): -0.29% or -36.80 points to 12,771.11
For Stocks, Nikola (NKLA ) shares dropped over 10% on Wednesday after the EV companies announced it has ended its partnership with Republic Services (RSG ) to jointly develop electric garbage trucks. Energy and travel stocks rose as investors began to bet on cyclical sectors heading into the year's end: American Airlines (AAL ), Carnival (CCL ), Chevron (CVX ), Delta (DAL ), Diamondback Energy (FANG ), ExxonMobil (XOM ), Norwegian (NCLH ), Royal Caribbean (RCL ), Southwest (LUV ), United Airlines (UAL ).
For Sector Performance, most sectors on the S&P gained on Wednesday as traders were encouraged by the passage of additional stimulus and began to place bets that will carry into the new year. Energy (XLE ) led performance gains, surging over 2%, while Financials (XLF ) was not too far behind, rising more than 1%. Only three sectors ended the session in negative territory, with Real Estate (XLRE ), Information Technology (XLK ) and Utilities (XLU ) all sinking lower.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP ) dipped lower on Wednesday as investor's risk appetite increased on expectations of a near-term Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the European Union. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, fell 0.1% to 90.39 in afternoon trading. Gold (GLD ) prices rose as much as 1% on Wednesday as investors continued to bet on an imminent U.S. stimulus package despite Trump's veto threat. Spot gold settled up 0.7% at $1,872.03 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures gained 0.5% to $1,879.00 per ounce. Crude oil futures climbed higher on Wednesday, with investors betting on better fuel demand into the new year. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO ) increased 2.24% to $51.20 per barrel, while domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate (USO ) settled 2.34% higher at $48.12 each.
For Thursday, no economic data is slated for release as U.S. markets close early at 1 p.m. EST ahead of the Christmas holiday. U.S. trading markets are closed on Friday in observance.