(New York, Toronto) The New York Stock Exchange closed a shortened and rather quiet session higher Thursday on Christmas Eve, with investors keeping tabs on the fate of the US economy support plan.
Posted on December 24, 2020 at 9:47 a.m.
Updated at 15:49
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The flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.23% to 30,199.87 points.
The high-tech NASDAQ gained 0.26% to 12,804.73 points and the expanded S&P 500 index rose 0.35% to 3703.06 points.
Canada’s main stock index, for its part, closed in positive territory. The S & P / TSX Composite Index finished up 30.31 points to 17,623.88.
The Canadian dollar was at 77.91 cents US, up from 77.78 cents US on Wednesday.
These increases took place “despite the uncertainties surrounding the stimulus plan and the budget bill, passed earlier this week by Congress, while President Trump threatened to veto these measures”, say analysts by Charles Schwab.
Republican elected officials in the House of Representatives on Thursday morning blocked a Democrats’ proposal to increase the amount of checks to be sent to the most vulnerable Americans from $ 600 to $ 2,000 as part of the new stimulus plan.
Outgoing US President Donald Trump himself expressed his dissatisfaction with the compromise reached earlier this week in Congress after months of tough negotiations and providing for some $ 900 billion in total.
Mr. Trump had called the plan a “disgrace” and called for an upward revision of the amount of direct payments to Americans.
In the event of a presidential veto, Congress could however pass the text by adopting it again by an overwhelming majority.
Market players have also taken note of the historic agreement announced Thursday by the European Union and the United Kingdom on their future trade relationship, which will allow them to avoid in extremis an absence of devastating compromise for their economies at the end of the year. ‘year.
Wall Street will be closed Friday, Christmas Day, and reopen Monday morning.
Among the values of the day, Alibaba plunged a little more than 13%. The Chinese e-commerce giant is under investigation by the Chinese government for “suspicion of monopoly practices.” ”
Square, the payments services company founded and run by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, lost 1.04%. According to Bloomberg News, the company wants to acquire Tidal, the streaming musical whose first shareholder is rap star Jay-Z.
Electric and hydrogen-powered truck maker Nikola fell nearly 9% after announcing on Wednesday it was canceling its partnership with waste collection and recycling specialist Republic Services to make an electric garbage truck. This is yet another blow for Nikola, which saw General Motors give up becoming a shareholder last month. The group is also targeted by several fraud investigations.
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