and called for stimulus payments to be lifted to $2,000 from $600, raising the possibility he could veto the long-debated measure.
Investors looked past the risk the stimulus bill could die and instead focused on the possibility of a richer package. "If there's any change, it's to make the bill more stimulative," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, adding that after 4 years of watching Trump, markets are accustomed to"watching what he does, not what he says."Analysts also cited a boost from the announcement of a US-reached agreement to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19.
Consumer confidence fell as incomes and spending declined, and new home sales slumped, according to government and private data. While new applications for US jobless benefits fell by 89,000 last week after 2 weeks of increases, they remain high and have risen in 4 of the past 6 weeks, the Labor Department reported.He pointed to the drop in personal income as the most troubling sign, saying"it is clear that people are not replacing their government welfare payments with private sector income."New York - S&P 500: UP 0.1% at 3,690.01 Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 1.3% at 13,587.23 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.