Investors Not Happy With Slow-Moving Congress

By all accounts, Wall Street would have been a very happy place on Friday had Congress managed to reach a deal on a COVID stimulus package. But with talks dragging on beyond the closing bell, the markets instead backed off Thursday's record closes, reports CNBC. The Dow dropped 124 points to 30,179, the S&P 500 fell 13 points to 3,709, and the Nasdaq fell 9 points to 12,755. All the decreases were well under 1%.

”I think it’s all about stimulus,” Chris Zaccarelli of Independent Advisor Alliance tells the Wall Street Journal. “Anything that looks to slow that down or postpone that until January will be seen as a negative in the market.” Some kind of deal is possible Friday night, given the midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown. The day was notable for another reason: Friday marked the entry of Tesla into the S&P 500, notes the AP. (More stock market stories.)