# U.S. stocks hover near records in final session of 2020

What’s driving the market?

Equities are on track to end 2020 on a strong note after plunging into a bear market in February and March as the COVID-19 pandemic threw the global economy into a deep recession. The bear market was one of the shortest in history though, with equities subsequently rebounding as governments and central banks moved to aggressively provide fiscal and monetary stimulus.

“Expectations for improving news on the vaccine and economic fronts as 2020 wore on were rewarded if one used pullbacks in the stock market to take action and put money to work in sectors that would likely benefit from a positive viewpoint looking out into and through next year,” said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in a note.

“It also doesn’t hurt that the Federal Reserve has been frequently reminding us that its low-interest-rate policy is likely to be in place through at least the end of 2021 if not meaningfully longer,” he said.

Gains in stocks accelerated over the last two months as vaccines were approved and began to be rolled out, even as a resurgence of the virus sends the number of cases and fatalities to new highs.

But investors also caution that the pace of recent gains, the resurgent pandemic, and a slow start to the vaccine rollouts could set the stage for a near-term pullback.

U.S. data showed first-time jobless benefit claims unexpectedly declined by 19,000 to 787,000 last week. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast initial claims to rise to 835,000. State continuing jobless claims dropped 103,000 to 5.22 million.

While initial jobless claims fell for a second week, they remain high compared with any week before the coronavirus pandemic. The prior record of 665,000 set in 2009, was easily shattered early in the pandemic when new claims peaked at a whopping 6.87 million in the last week of March this year.

“The last meaningful gauge of the state of the jobs market for 2020 tells a familiar story: one of an economy that has slowed considerably in recent months as the renewed threat posed by the resurgence in COVID-19 across the country is taking a toll,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer for Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

Stock market trading activity was expected to be thin Thursday ahead of the New Year’s Day holiday Friday when markets will be closed.

Investors appeared to take fading prospects for larger direct payments to U.S. households from the federal government in stride. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., late Wednesday afternoon said he wouldn’t allow a stand-alone vote on the proposal passed by the Democratic controlled House on Monday that would boost the payouts from $600 to 2,000 under the latest financial-aid package signed into law by President Trump last Sunday.

The U.S. counted at least 229,235 new cases on Wednesday, and at least 3,808 people died, according to a New York Times tracker. In the past week, the U.S. has averaged 183,271 cases a day, down 13% from the average two weeks ago, but health experts have warned that cases are likely to rise following travel around Christmas.

There are currently a record 125,220 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, according to the COVID Tracking Project, breaking the record set a day ago. 

Which companies are in focus?

• Hedge fund Alden Global said it’s made a $14.25-per-share nonbinding proposal for the shares it doesn’t already own in Tribune Publishing Co.
  TPCO,
  +7.74%,
  the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News. Tribune shares jumped more than 8%.

• Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp.
  XOM,
  -1.17%
  were off 1.4% after the energy giant said it expects higher oil and gas and chemical prices to boost fourth-quarter earnings, but confirmed that it is also expecting to write down $18 to $20 billion of upstream assets. Exxon shares have fallen more than 40% in 2020.

What are other markets doing?

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
  HSI,
  +0.31%
  rose 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite
  SHCOMP,
  +1.72%
  jumped 1.7%.

• The pan-European Stoxx 600
  SXXP,
  -0.30%
  fell 0.3%, leaving it up 4.1% this year. London’s FTSE 100
  UKX,
  -1.45%
  declined 1.5%, extending a 14.3% yearly drop, its largest such fall since 2008.

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield
  TMUBMUSD10Y,
  0.919%
  was 0.6 basis point lower at 0.92%. Yields and debt prices move in opposite directions.

• The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
  DXY,
  +0.31%,
  a measure of the U.S. currency against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.2%, after trading near a 2 1/2-year low.

• Oil futures were lower, with the U.S. benchmark
  CL.1,
  -0.23%
  down 0.5% near $48.17 a barrel. Gold futures
  GC00,
  +0.23%
  edged higher, changing hands near $1,896 an ounce.