Stimulus Hopes Again Affect the Markets

Markets rose again on Thursday amid hopes that Congress and the White House will be able to agree on some sort of stimulus bill. Also helping was a Labor Department report suggesting that layoffs were slowing a bit, per the AP. The Dow rose 122 points to 28,425, the S&P 500 rose 27 points to 3,446, and the Nasdaq rose 56 points to 11,420. Earlier, a government report showed that 840,000 people applied for jobless benefits last week, down a tick from 849,000 the previous week.

But it's the possibility of more COVID relief from Capitol Hill that seems to be the real driver of what the markets are doing. “It’s still all about stimulus at this point: we’re seeing markets move on optimism that some kind of package is going to get done,” Esty Dwek of Natixis Investment Managers tells the Wall Street Journal. “It’s just a question of how much the Republicans will agree to.” (President Trump and Nancy Pelosi have been sparring over the issue.)